Lee Carsley: 'It's the best competition you can play in'

England men’s under-21s head coach Lee Carsley and captain James McAtee addressed the media ahead of tomorrow’s showdown against Germany.

The Young Lions – the reigning European champions – will battle it out for a chance to make it back-to-back titles in the UEFA U21 EUROs as Carsley’s side take on Germany in Bratislava in the Final on Saturday 28 June (8pm BST kick-off) for a chance to lift the trophy.

Here is everything the England boss had to say ahead of the match-up.

Carsley on the success of the reigning European champions:

Hopefully, it’ll have some correlation to the last group. I think we’ve seen that players that won the competition went on to get senior camps. It definitely helps that they’ve got that experience of winning with England and we definitely believe that they can.

Hopefully they can perform tomorrow night and win a second European Championship. It will be great for them. Like I say, I’ve got a lot of belief in them. They’re an exciting team – they’re really together and they’ve grown as the tournament has gone on. Hopefully they get what they deserve.

I think from an under-21s point of view, it’s the best competition you can play in. It’s the last competition also that you can play in from an age point of view.

On the progression of the team:

The team evolves constantly throughout a tournament. The squad is the most important thing for me. Once we name that squad, making sure that we put the right players on the plane, we’ve been able to make changes quite early in games which has meant that a lot of players have got minutes.

We’ve spoke about this how important strength of this squad is, not so much the starting 11 but the whole squad because we’re going to need everyone if we’re going to win tomorrow. We need that togetherness and that’s been there from the first camp. It’s very difficult to throw 23 personalities together for 28 days and expect it just to click.

They’ve definitely took their time to get into the groove and find the patterns within each other. I’m really impressed with the group – they’re a bunch of players I’ve really enjoyed working with. You always see the difference between the start of the campaign two years ago.

They’re still young and fresh but the experiences they have with the clubs to get to this point now, it’s exciting times for England because we have some really talented players within our pathway that are more than capable of pushing the senior players.

On his belief in the team:

I’ve got a lot of confidence with the players. I knew in the second half against Germany, we clicked. In the first half it would be fair to say – especially in the first 20 minutes – we did not play well. We see a lot of the players and they train at such a high level and it was only going to be a matter of time before it clicked for them. After the game, I was more than confident that this team had clicked and we were in a good position.

From my point of view, I always want the players to do well. I know the rewards they’ll get as a team if they do well. I don’t see it as a reflection on myself. I just want them to do well because you want to support English players in the pathway.

#U21EURO finalists 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿❤️ pic.twitter.com/N4ZgCfaYh1

— England (@England) June 25, 2025

On his pride in the role:

Coaching players at this level is like coaching players at senior level because of the experiences they have, the levels they’re playing at and the coaches that they’re being coached by back at their clubs.

The thing is now is we can help the under-21s and it’s a really privileged position that I’m in. To coach these players with these attributes is something I don’t take for granted.