Graphic: England's reward

Graphic: future stars or dead-end kids?

England’s under-21 players could be excused their exuberance at Gothenburg’s Gamla Ullevi stadium on Friday night. An international football championship final beckoned, for the first time at this or senior level since England under-21s won in 1984, and this time even after a penalty shootout.

Yet the England coach Stuart Pearce, having hitherto been always the consoled in three semi-finals as a player and coach, was all stiff upper lip.

Pearce knows tomorrow’s final against Germany at the New Stadium, Malmo, will be more problematic than some may believe; in part because of such redoubtable opponents but also because England enter the arena having to contend with self-inflicted damage, both to resources of personnel and their self-assurance.

By the end of extra time, having had a 3-0 half-time lead negated, England’s young players must have felt, emotionally, as if they’d gone several rounds with one of Gothenburg’s most celebrated sons, the late Ingemar Johansson. Pearce’s men prevailed but you suspected they were bruised by what had preceded that 5-4 penalty shootout victory. Joe Hart’s save from Sweden’s Marcus Berg, followed by the goalkeeper contemptuously driving home his own penalty as No 2 in England’s kicking order — before overdoing the gamesmanship and provoking the caution (his second of the tournament) that denied him a final appearance — claimed the headlines. But this was close, too darn close, and Pearce knew it.

When he declared afterwards, of the second half: “There were some good things and some awful things. It was game management at its worst,” he was by no means overstating matters. He added: “The players and me have to learn from this.”

How will Pearce react, not just to England’s subjugation in the second half and extra time, but to three key players being suspended? His coaching acumen will be tested as he looks to breach a German rearguard that has conceded only one goal in the tournament, scored by Jack Rodwell in the group game that finished 1-1.

Curiously, in view of an England squad so well prepared, there was an apparent lack of foresight surrounding forward power. It was grave enough that Gabriel Agbonlahor of Aston Villa will miss the final because of a caution in Friday’s game that followed an earlier one. Just as we, and no doubt Pearce, were imagining England possessed a potent deputy in Fraizer Campbell, that striker lost his place, too, launching into a ridiculous challenge that left the referee with no option but to give him his second yellow of the match.

To arrive here with just three forwards, including Theo Walcott, now appears remiss. Walcott will presumably be deployed as a lone frontrunner, abetted by Milner, Mark Noble and Lee Cattermole, with the purpose of exposing Germany with pace, in a 4-2-3-1 formation. That is how England completed what turned out to be a rehearsal last Monday against Horst Hrubesch’s team.

If a central, free-running Walcott is Pearce’s proposal to address the forward conundrum, he will be looking to the 20-year-old Arsenal man to come good in the final. Sweden’s Martin Olsson had reflected beforehand that Walcott’s quality is embellished by the elite club company he keeps. Certainly, Walcott has not contributed enough in this tournament thus far to disprove such remarks. In Gothenburg, his finishing lacked the purpose he displayed when netting a hat-trick so impressively for the seniors against Croatia last September.

Walcott will need to rediscover that finishing prowess at a time when his country has reminded itself how it feels to win semi-finals. Now for a step further, in the knowledge that England have won only one of 64 Uefa-run tournaments, at senior and youth level, since the England under-21s’ success in 1984 (and that at under-18 level in 1993).