The 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship reaches its conclusion on Saturday with two teams left standing. A determined England side meets Spain, which has dominated the competition through the years.
England is a slight favorite to take the crown with bookmaker 10bet offering odds at 1.83 for the Young Lions to win the trophy. The odds are at 1.95 for Spain to triumph in the competition for a sixth time.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: July 7th, 10:00 A.M. (EST)
Spain is currently sharing the competition record with five previous tournament victories and the team will be aiming to break the tie with Italy on Saturday. The current side probably isn’t as strong as some of the previous squads, but the Spaniards were very impressive in the semi-final against Ukraine and should be in great spirits following a dominant 5-1 victory.
Overall, La Rojita has registered three wins and two draws in the competition. The tournament started with back-to-back victories, but the group stage ended with a 2-2 draw against Ukraine and Switzerland then took Spain into extra time in the quarter-finals.
Having scored 13 goals across five games, the Spanish team looks very dangerous going forward. However, in England, Santi Denia’s men go up against a rock-solid defense.
Lee Carsley has had the perfect balance in his team throughout the tournament and England has yet to concede a goal. Even Portugal and Germany couldn’t get anything past highly-rated James Trafford in the England goal. Meanwhile, the attacking quality has been too strong for everybody, with England recording four of its five victories by at least a two-goal difference.
Spain’s Sergio Gomez and Abel Ruiz are battling for the tournament’s Golden Boot, but overall, the England team boasts more offensive threat. Some established Premier League stars are still young enough to play at this level and the likes of Morgan Gibbs-White, Emile Smith Rowe and Anthony Gordon have caused big problems for the opposition in each game.
Smith Rowe and Gordon have registered three goal involvements in the tournament while Gibbs-White is topping the list with four. He scored the opening goal in a 3-0 semi-final triumph over Isreal and has set up three further goals for his teammates. Plenty of eyebrows were raised last summer when Nottingham Forest decided to bring in Gibbs-White from Wolverhampton with a £42.5 million deal, but he had a good Premier League campaign and has taken the momentum to the U21s championship as well.
