England U21s boss Aidy Boothroyd wants to see his side focus on beating Poland to seal Euro semi-final spot

Wednesday 21 Jun 2017

Aidy Boothroyd wants to see the collective approach which helped England Under-21s to victory over Slovakia come to the fore in Thursday’s match with Poland.

The Young Lions go into their final group game knowing that a win will be enough to take them into next week’s semi-finals.

But the head coach is expecting a fierce atmosphere and a tough test against the tournament hosts, who also have a chance of qualifying if they can beat Boothroyd’s side.

“The Polish team have been unfortunate in their games, they have some good players who will give us a problem,” he said.

“They’ve got massive heart and they start games really fast and you can see that they never give in and they keep working for their country.

“As nice and friendly as it’s been for us in Poland, I don’t expect to get any favours. We know that, so we’ll be doing our best to get a result, be professional and finish it off to get out of the group.

“We’re in the driving seat, so we’ve got to make sure we do our job and we don’t get caught up in all of the Polish passion.”

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The Young Lions squad have already shown their character during the competition, with a Jordan Pickford penalty save helping to secure a draw in their opener with Sweden before second-half goals from Alfie Mawson and Nathan Redmond saw them come from behind to beat Slovakia on Monday.

And that victory came after the group had stern words for each other at the break after a disappointing first-half performance.

“I think that’s when you know you’re onto a good thing, when you’ve got players who take account for what’s going on on the pitch,” he added.

“It was a big pressure game and I think there was a lot of frustration and people naturally want to speak their mind and say what they think.

“Thankfully, everybody calmed down and we did what we had to do and I thought it was an amazing performance in the second half.

“The pressure that the players were under in the second half was huge, because we were going home, but the fact that we’re still here smiling shows that we’ve given ourselves a good chance of progressing in the tournament.

“What’s important now is focusing on the here and now and what we’ve got to do in the next game.”

The match kicks-off at 7.45pm on Thursday, at the same time as the other group A fixture between Sweden and Slovakia, with all four teams still having a chance to top the table.

By Nicholas Veevers Content Manager - FA Owned Channels in Kielce, Poland

Aidy: 'Do our own job'