Key events
2 min Slovenia are a good side, who finished top of their qualification group despite losing 4-0 at home to France. They drew the return game and won the other eight.
1 min England kick off from left to right as we watch. It really is warm out there, 28 degrees apparently. Little brisk.
The players are about to take the field on what looks a very warm evening in western Slovakia. Let’s have a quick reminder of the teams.
England (4-2-2-2) Beadle; Gray, Cresswell, Quansah, Livramento; Hackney, Anderson; Elliott, Nwaneri; McAtee, Rowe.
Substitutes: Simkin, Sharman-Lowe, Edwards, Fellows, Hutchinson, Norton-Cuffy, Egan-Riley, Hinshelwood, Iling-Junior, Stansfield, Scott, Morton.
Slovenia (4-2-3-1) Turk; Ilenic, Jevsenak, Golic, Kuzmic; Ostrc, Zeljkovic; Seslar, Begic, Brest; T Cipot.
Substitutes: Leban, Stubljar, Obric, Kojic, Krupic, Lorber, Jovanovic, Topalovic, Pecar, Pisek, Cuber Potocnik, Milic.
Referee Goga Kikacheishvili (Georgia)
“I really enjoy our under-21s,” says Ian Copestake. “Harvey Elliott can shine and feel the respect despite his haircut and these boys can just play free.”
Freedom makes the world go round.
Lee Carsley talks to Channel 4
There are a lot of areas [we can improve upon]. The challenge is to play with more control; it’s gonna be a tough game tonight. Slovenia are a strong team and we’ve struggled against them in the past.
Slovenia had a lot of chances against Germany, even though they lost 3-0, especially in the first half. We’re really aware of their strengths and we’ll try to expose their weaknesses where we can.
[On Ethan Nwaneri] He adds a lot. Everyone’s seen his quality; the key with Ethan is to make sure we don’t rush him, that we share his minutes around so that when he does play he has an impact. He’s been brilliant in the camp so far. You have to keep reminding yourself how old he is.
The players on a yellow card
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England Elliot Anderson
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Slovenia Mitja Ilenic, Srdan Kuzmic, Tjas Begic, Enrik Ostrc
The XIs
England (4-2-2-2) Beadle; Gray, Cresswell, Quansah, Livramento; Hackney, Anderson; Elliott, Nwaneri; McAtee, Rowe.
Substitutes: Simkin, Sharman-Lowe, Edwards, Fellows, Hutchinson, Norton-Cuffy, Egan-Riley, Hinshelwood, Iling-Junior, Stansfield, Scott, Morton.
Slovenia (4-2-3-1) Turk; Ilenic, Jevsenak, Golic, Kuzmic; Ostrc, Zeljkovic; Seslar, Begic, Brest; T Cipot.
Substitutes: Leban, Stubljar, Obric, Kojic, Krupic, Lorber, Jovanovic, Topalovic, Pecar, Pisek, Cuber Potocnik, Milic.
Referee Goga Kikacheishvili (Georgia)
England team news: Nwaneri starts
Lee Carsley makes two changes from the win over the Czech Republic: Middlesbrough’s Hayden Hackney and Arsenal’s Ethan Nwaneri replace Alex Scott and Omari Hutchinson.
Slovenia manager Andrej Razdrh sticks with the team that started against Germany. We’ll have the full XIs in a second.
The story so far
England beat the Czech Republic 3-1 thanks to goals from Harvey Elliott, Jonathan Rowe and Charlie Cresswell.
Slovenia were beaten 3-0 by Germany, with Stuttgart’s Nick Woltemade – who played with the big boys in the recent Nations League – scoring a hat-trick.
Preamble
And so to Nitra, where the holders England play Slovenia in their second group game of the European Under-21 Championship. A hard-fought victory over the Czech Republic means Lee Carsley’s side will almost certainly qualify for the quarter-finals if they win again today.
Fail and it will come to the last group game against Germany. But the likeliest scenario, certainly the ideal one for England, is that the only thing at stake in that game will be who finishes top of the group.
Kick off 5pm.
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