Buzzin Football

Imagine an international football tournament involving the best teams in Europe, where there is no diving or cynical play acting, where there are no players angrily gathering around the referee after every decision and no imaginary cards waved.

Imagine a competition of top quality football being played by footballers that you are unlikely to have heard of before the tournament, who would probably die for their respective countries for the chance to wear the national shirt.

Imagine a tournament that would erase the disappointing parts of the recent World Cup and instill a new faith in the game, and you have the UEFA Under 19 European Championships.

This tournament has not exactly hogged the headlines despite the quality that has been shown in France where the competition is being held. I was fortunate to find the final game of the group stages being played last week, a cracking game between France and England.

The French team are top quality, passing the ball around like the full international team used to back in the nineties, and they led the game 1-0. While England never quite had the quality of the French team they bombarded the French goal late in the game and in the final minute grabbed an equaliser that sent them, with France into the semi finals.

If France look good, the Spanish team is a junior version of the World Cup winning international team and that’s who England needed to beat to progress to the final.

A gutsy performance from England’s young lions was not enough to upset the smooth passing game played by Spain, who were technically superior and sadly outclassed England.  Spain won the game 3-1 and you can see the goals here, the third Spanish goal is a cheeky but clever free kick that caught everyone by surprise.

In the other semi, France eventually saw off a spirited Croatia who had taken the lead in the third minute and threatened to upset the party for the home side. France had most of the possession after the goal, but Croatia were particularly dangerous on the counter.

France eventually equalised and took the lead in the game, lifting Croatia into the frenzied final part of the game. France held on for a 2-1 win and set up a mouth watering final against Spain which will be played on Friday at 7pm, and broadcast live on Eurosport.

On this evidence the future looks brighter than ever for the Spanish full international team and France have the qualities to re-build their under performing full international side from the youngsters on show. For England, they too showed that they have some key players maturing toward the next World Cup, but when it comes to class, they were outshone this time around.