Euro U21 play-off success for quintet

There was European qualifying play-off joy for our quartet on England Under-21 duty – as well as Milos Veljkovic with Serbia Under-21s – on Tuesday.

Eric Dier, Tom Carroll and Harry Kane all started for the Young Lions as they secured a 2-1 win in Croatia in the second leg of their European Under-21 Championship qualifying play-off – and a 4-2 victory on aggregate – to book their place in next summer’s tournament finals.

Tom and Harry got respective assists for England’s two goals on the night, Tom’s corner being driven home by Liam Moore to open the scoring while Harry set up Will Hughes to restore the visitors’ lead after the hosts had equalised.

Eric, Tom and Harry all played the full match, while Alex Pritchard was on the bench.

Elsewhere, Championship holders Spain Under-21s were dumped out of the competition in their qualification play-off against Milos Veljkovic’s Serbia Under-21s. With the tie goalless after the first leg, Serbia took a first half lead before Spain levelled two minutes into stoppage time. However, there was further late drama as Serbia snatched a winner a minute later – booking their place in the finals. Milos played the full game.

It was also a good night for Vlad Chiriches, who played 90 minutes for Romania in their 2-0 win in Finland in a Euro 2016 qualifier.

Christian Eriksen and Denmark, meanwhile, suffered a 1-0 home defeat to Portugal in their latest Euro 2016 qualifying match. Christian was substituted with six minutes remaining, with Portugal grabbing the winner deep into stoppage time.