Less than two weeks after locking horns in the group phase of the Under-21 Euro 2023 Championships, Israel Under-21s and England Under-21s renew hostilities at the Adjarabet Arena on Wednesday with a spot on the final on offer.
ေအာက္ကၾကိဳက္တဲ့Liveကိုနွိပ္ၾကည့္ပါ ပြဲခ်ိန္နီးမွၾကည့္ရပါမယ္
The Young Chosen Team broke Georgian hearts by eliminating the co-hosts on penalties in the quarter-finals, while the Young Lions survived several scares to edge past Portugal 1-0.
Georgia had topped a group comprising Portugal, the Netherlands and Belgium to qualify for the knockout rounds for the first time in their history, but Israel had already proven to be a tough nut to crack - holding eliminated champions Germany to a 1-1 draw on matchday one - and Guy Luzon's men flaunted every inch of their defensive nous in the quarters.
Despite only seeing 39% of the ball, Israel kept the scoreline goalless during 120 minutes of tense action, after which Daniel Peretz saved from Giorgi Gagua in the penalty shootout before Saba Khvadagiani fluffed his lines, sending Luzon's charges through to the final four.
Prior to the 2023 competition, Israel had just two group-stage exits to their name from the 2007 and 2013 Under-21 Euros tournaments - qualifying for the latter finals as hosts - but with a handful of players in the squad propelling their nation to the Under-19s final last year, their astounding progress at this level may not come as too much of a surprise.
However, there will be no awards for guessing who denied Israel a shot at continental glory in the Under-19s tournament, and a spate of suspensions will also do Luzon's side no favours whatsoever as they prepare to tackle the only nation to best them at the 2023 Euros so far.
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