Aidy Boothroyd admits he’d have been more than happy to buy a ticket to watch his England U21s beat Italy.
A Dominic Solanke double proved enough to help the Young Lions to a 2-1 win in Ferrara in the first of England’s preparation games for next summer’s Euro Finals in Italy.
And with the hosts pushing his side all the way and equalising with a fine goal of their own from Moises Kean, Boothroyd felt everybody at the Stadio Paolo Mazza had their money’s worth.
“I’ve just said to the lads, I’d have paid to watch that, I thought it was excellent,” said Boothroyd after the game.
“I thought some of the stuff we played in the second half was brilliant, but we’ve still got a bit to do and that’s the message.
“We were hanging on a little bit at the end and I’d prefer us to be a little bit more in control and make them defend a bit more with us having the ball.
“But that’s what these games are for, and I really enjoyed that.”
Boothroyd’s side secured their place in next June’s Euro Finals with wins in last month’s final qualifying games against Andorra and Scotland.
And he now wants to see his players pushed to their limits as they look to get in gear for their return to Italy for the Finals next June.
“It was a tough game, and we want to play the best,” he added.
“If we can have a good set of games going into the Euros, they can try and exploit our weaknesses and see what we can do.
“Tonight, they tried to out-strength and out-muscle us but we stood up to it so I was really pleased.”
The U21s squad will now head to Denmark, where they play their final game of 2018 in Esbjerg on Tuesday evening. Watch that game live on BT Sport.
