Internationals / Mike Norman / 30 June 2009 / Leave a comment

Stuart Pearce's dream of winning the U21 European Championship will have to wait another two years, but Mike Norman reckons that last night's defeat to Germany was largely down to what happened in the semi-final.

If I'm being honest, Fraizer Campbell's unnecessary lunge and Joe Hart's antics during the semi-final look rather stupid now.

Of course, hindsight is to a writer what a dog is to a man, but last night England were totally outplayed and ultimately humiliated by a German side that, just seven days ago, England seemed to hold the upper hand over.

But with just one available striker following Campbell's semi-final dismissal, Stuart Pearce's team looked completely out of shape and devoid of any real attacking options. It also didn't help that Hart's replacement, Scott Loach, had an absolute nightmare in the England goal and was clearly at fault for Germany's two knock-out blows - the second and third goals.

But give credit to Germany, and to two men in particular - coach Horst Hrubesch and the sublime playmaker Mesut Ozil.

Just a week ago Hrubesch was claiming that he couldn't live with the way Germany had performed against England. If that comment was aimed at getting a reaction then boy did he get one. His team, orchestrated by the wonderfully gifted Ozil in an advanced midfield role, quite simply outclassed England last night, snuffing out the Three Lions' threat from set-pieces with ease.

At Kick-off England were the favourites to win the match at [2.54] whilst Germany were available to back at [3.4]. But things changed dramatically on 23 minutes when Ozil found Gonzalo Castro in the penalty box who dinked the ball over the on-rushing Loach. Germany were now trading at [1.66] to win the match with England out at [7.2].

Shortly after the interval came the moment Loach will want to forget. A seemingly harmless free-kick from all of 35 yards was dispatched goalwards by Ozil, and though the ball did swerve in the air, it should have been meat and drink to the Watford goalkeeper. Instead, he completely misjudged the flight and Germany were 2-0 up. England were now available to back at [42.0] to win the match - Germany were into [1.11].

Two further goals from Sandro Wagner (one through Loach's legs) wrapped up victory for Germany making them the U21 European Champions, surprisingly, for the first time in their history.

Any Unquoted in the Correct Score market was matched at [40.0], whilst Germany/Germany in the Half Time/Full Time market was matched at [7.4]. In the tournament Winner market, Germany never touched higher than [8.0] but were considered as only fourth favourites pre-tournament behind Spain, Italy and England.

Whilst Theo Walcott, Mario Balotelli and Bojan Krkic won't be getting a mention in my 'Players of the Tournament' list, below I've highlighted a few players that did make the shortlist.

England midfielders Fabrice Muamba, Lee Cattermole and Mark Noble all performed with credit during the course of the last two weeks, but it's Micah Richards that gets my vote for being England's best player. The Manchester City defender was the match-winner against Finland, outstanding in his man of the match performance against Spain, and equally good against Sweden. The whole team were poor last night, not just Richards.

I've already waxed lyrical over Mesut Ozil's performance last night but this wasn't a one-off. He was outstanding throughout the tournament resulting in scouts from all over Europe making notes. Werder Bremen paid just over £4m for him in January last year but they will be hard pushed to prevent £10m plus bids coming in during the course of the next six weeks.

Prior to the last fortnight, the most goals that had ever been scored by one player in an U21 European Championship tournament was four. Sweden's Marcus Berg scored seven during this one, with his compatriot Ola Toivonen scoring three.

Ajax are rumoured to be hot on the heels of Berg, who looks an absolute natural in front of goal, reminiscent of Gary Lineker and Robbie Fowler in terms of his finishing ability. I hope we see him in the Premier League sooner rather than later.