England under-21s booked their spot at next summer\u2019s European Championship ahead of their visit to a sold out Turner\u2019s Cross to face the Republic of Ireland on Tuesday despite being held to a goalless draw by Slovakia in Stoke.<\/p>\n
The Young Lions sat six points ahead of Slovakia before their meeting, with two games remaining, which meant Lee Carsley\u2019s side only needed a draw to send them through to Euro 2027.<\/p>\n
Carsley said his side would go for the win but were frustrated by a Slovakia team that sat with a low block.<\/p>\n
England came closest through Will Lankshear, who nodded wide a couple of headers in the first period, but they seemed content to take a point and qualify for a tournament they are looking to win for a third successive time.<\/p>\n
Archie Gray captained the side in the absence of Jobe Bellingham, who was sent back to Borussia Dortmund, while Lankshear came in for his first start after scoring in the 4-2 win over Kazakhstan last week.<\/p>\n
England were the only side looking for an opener. Sydie Peck picked out the in-form Lankshear who guided a header wide and Ethan Nwaneri also came close.<\/p>\n
Along came another chance for Lankshear, this time assisted by the bright Tyrique George, but the Middlesbrough striker narrowly nodded wide of the far post.<\/p>\n
Chelsea\u2019s Josh Acheampong scored last Friday night and he tested the palms of Adam Hrdina from range to make his first save.<\/p>\n
Slovakia needed a goal to keep their faint chances of automatic qualification open, and started the second period with a bit more intensity than the first. Hugo Pavek had a crack from long range which James Beadle needed to be alert to.<\/p>\n
Samuel Amo-Ameyaw looked menacing and was particularly causing problems for Slovakia full-back Filip Mielke. He fashioned himself an opportunity early in the second half by cutting inside but aimed over the crossbar.<\/p>\n
England continued to look for a goal that would break the deadlock. Gray tried his luck from range to see if he could mark the occasion with a goal but Slovakia\u2019s defence stood strong.<\/p>\n
Amario Cozier-Duberry replaced George but right-back Pavek\u2019s evening did not get any easier, this time the Middlesbrough winger cut inside and flashed in a cross for Peck who could not guide home the opener as both sides settled for a point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England under-21s booked their spot at next summer\u2019s European Championship ahead of their visit to a sold out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1113,61,60,2539,5782,43,5783],"class_list":["post-643158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-fai","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-league-of-ireland","tag-local-soccer","tag-news","tag-premiership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}