So with all the talk going on about Ronlado`s 80m transfer to Real Madrid everyone seems to of forgot all about England`s under 21 european final which starts next week in Sweden.
England kick off on june 15th against Finland then play Spain on june 18th followed by Germany on June 22 nd and hopefully manage to finish in the top 2 to qualify for the semi final stage.
England are 3rd favourites to win the finals behind Italy and Spain and so they should be with a squad full of players with premiership experience with the likes of Micah Richards,Steven Taylor,James Milner,Theo Walcott and Gabby Agbonlahor.
So what do we know about our opponents?
Spain-won all 8 of their group games and are a massive danger to any team.
Germany-won their group but almost lost to France in the play offs and needed a last minute goal to reach Sweden.
Finland-also won their group and beat Austria on pens in the play offs 1st championship so could shock a few.
The other group consists of hosts Sweden,Italy,Belarus and Serbia, the Italians will start favourites to win the group but Serbia reached the finals in 2007 and are ones to keep an eye on.
So apart from the well known English players who else do i expect to shine over the next couple of weeks.
Im going to pick 1 player from each country to follow who i think might do well.
Marcus Berg (Sweden) plays in Holland for FC Groningen and top scored for them with 17 goals.
Sergei Kryvets (Belarus) played and scored for FC Bate in the champions league against Juventus.
Mario Balotelli (Italy) Inter Milan striker held in high regard by Marcello Lippi scored 3 in 3 so far.
Bojan (Spain) favourite for golden boot and Barcelona`s future striker for sure.
Mesut Ozil (Germany) scored winner for Werder Bremen in German cup final also played a hand in them reaching uefa cup final.
Tim Sparv (Finland) held in high regard by his country and is seen as Finlands main player through the midfield.
Its a tournament im looking forward to and im hoping England can go all the way to make up for the heart ache of the penalty shoot out last time to Holland in 2007.
Will the 3 lions roar ?
Lets hope so.
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