Peacock and Ercan can look ahead

England manager John Peacock praised his team, which included seven changes to the starting lineup against Greece, as they came from behind to defeat Turkey 2-1 and clinch UEFA European Under-17 Championship Group B first place and a semi-final on Thursday with France. Despite the loss Turkey ended in second and earned a tie with Spain, but coach Abdullah Ercan knows they need to improve on this showing. The Czech Republic could have gone through with a three-goal defeat of Greece but were held 0-0 and coach Jiří Štol reflected on missed chances.

TURKEY 1-2 ENGLAND
John Peacock, England manager
First of all congratulations to Turkey for getting to the semi-finals. It was always going to be a tough game today, and it was always a question of managing the squad of players. I was a little disappointed with how we started, as Turkey started better than us, but I think we gradually grew into the game. I'm please we got the goal back before half-time and we controlled the second period. It was a well-managed second period for us and we did really well and controlled the tempo of the game. We have played France before this year, we drew with them, a very close game and I expect the same again.

Abdullah Ercan, Turkey coach
We played two different games in the first half and the second half. In the first half we played very well and were in control, creating chances. In the second half we gave the ball away for no reason and were pegged back, and the penalty got our heads down. We didn't push hard enough to equalise. In the end we are in the semi-finals but we are in a more difficult situation now. Spain are very strong, we know that, but I think there will be a different mood in the semi-finals.

CZECH REPUBLIC 0-0 GREECE
Jiří Štol, Czech Republic coach
We went into the match with an offensive style because we wanted to win and hoped that the England-Turkey result would go our way. We were very active from the start and had many shots on goal, but just not on target. We were very threatening down the flanks. In the second half we were not so strong and Greece made some chances on the counterattack. We tried our best but we couldn't do it.

Leonidas Vokolos, Greece coach
We played a very good game today. There was no negative psychology because we knew we had nothing to worry about. My players did as I asked them to and played with passion and belief to win. We were very unlucky – we had to win today, but this is football.