Around the U21 camps: Friday

Group A
England
Manager Stuart Pearce was in a relaxed mood at the lunchtime press conference in Ha Moshava and noted that his "players have their tails up" in their early morning training sessions despite a below-par performance in their opening-day defeat by Italy. Pearce was also keen to stress that England "don't become a bad team overnight" but he is wary of a Norway side who play "a good brand of football".

On the injury front, England have a clean bill of health except for Henri Lansbury, who remains out with a groin problem. Wilfried Zaha is in contention after recovering from an ankle complaint, while Thomas Ince and Danny Rose are raring to go after serving their respective bans.

Israel
Israel have had one change forced on them already for Saturday's game against Italy with midfielder Marwan Kabha definitely sidelined by the abdominal injury he suffered in the opening match. Captain Nir Biton is fit, though, and there is speculation that coach Guy Luzon will give starts to Ofir Krieff and Alon Turgeman, who both came off the bench on Wednesday, the latter scoring.

Speaking before Friday's training session at Bloomfield Stadium, coach Guy Luzon admitted he had found Italy the competition's "most impressive" team so far, along with the Netherlands, but was hopeful his players would play better than against Norway when the feeling is that the occasion got to them.

That view was echoed by defender Taleb Twatha, the squad's most experienced player who – despite having played UEFA Champions League football for Maccabi Haifa FC – said: "It was highly emotional for me as well. But now we got this out of the way we want to pay our own football – we want to play the football we played [in friendlies last season] against Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium."

Italy
The Italy squad spent Friday morning analysing DVDs of Israel's opening game against Norway before travelling to Bloomfield Stadium for an early evening training session ahead of Saturday's second Group A outing.

Save for the loss of Luca Marrone to injury, coach Devis Mangia has a fully-fit squad to choose from but played down press rumours he would be giving a start to AS Roma forward Mattia Destro. "Apart from the players' general condition, the most important thing is the recovery between games and that is something we'll consider," he said when asked about changes.

Midfielder Marco Verratti, meanwhile, said Italy were keeping their feet on the ground following the win over England. "I'm happy about our start; everyone of us is playing for each other," he said. "Now we have to be calm and not get overconfident as we've not achieved anything yet."

Norway
It was a comparatively quiet morning on the beach for the Norwegian squad. Instead of the surfing exploits of yesterday they went for a stroll to stretch their legs before lunch. The afternoon was spent watching the video of their opening fixture against Israel and analysing England's performance against Italy.

Tor Ole Skullerud was pleased to report no injury concerns in his press conference and called on his team to be clinical against England. "We will not get as many chances as we did in the first game," he stressed. The Norway squad will be bolstered by the early-morning arrival of Valon Berisha, Markus Henriksen, Håvard Nordtveit and Joshua King, who are with the senior squad for their FIFA World Cup qualifier against Albania. However, Skullerud refused to be drawn on whether they will feature against England. "With regards to the starting XI we need to wait and see how the game in Albania goes and we will make an assessment tomorrow," he said.

Group B
Germany
Peniel Mlapa was taken off before half-time of Germany's 3-2 defeat by the Netherlands on Thursday because of a hamstring injury. However, he is expected to be available to face Spain. Kevin Volland, who impressed after coming on to replace Mlapa, could be in line to start, with coach Rainer Adrion refusing to rule out changes to his team against Spain. "A player who is on the bench is not necessarily worse than the one who started," he said.

Sebastian Rudy, who scored Germany's first goal of the tournament, is not too concerned about the loss to the Netherlands. "The performance we produced in the second half needs to be what we do from the first minute in the next match," he said. The Germany squad enjoyed the afternoon off, with table tennis as popular as ever. They then underwent a gentle recovery session rather than the scheduled evening training session.

Netherlands
Spirits were predictably high at the Netherlands' Friday training session following the Jong Oranje's 90th-minute triumph over Germany. A gentle warm-down in the hotel preceded a brief stint on the beach for all of the squad. The starting XI against Germany then remained at base while the rest of the party went training. Georginio Wijnaldum was the one exception, having been forced off with a back injury against Germany. He underwent treatment and opted to join in with training and is expected to be available to face Russia.

Russia
A recurrence of a knee injury has ended Ivan Knyazev's participation at the finals. The FC Torpedo Moskva defender broke down in the last training session before the Spain game, allowing Russia to call up a late replacement. Nikolai Pisarev opted to bring in FC Yenisey Krasnoyarsk's Aleksei Nikitin, who was training with the squad right until the start of the tournament.

The players were given the morning off after the loss to Spain but there were no excursions or group activities. Many squad members spent the time with their families or, in the instance of Pavel Yakovlev, went to the beach to take a dip in the Mediterranean Sea.

The senior team have a big World Cup qualifier in Portugal tonight, with Alan Dzagoev and Fedor Smolov, who will join up with Pisarev's squad on Saturday for the game against the Netherlands, in the squad.

Spain
Buoyed by their victory against Russia, the Spain squad had to come to terms with the news that Sergio Canales will play no further part in the tournament because of the left hamstring injury he sustained after coming on as a late substitute on Thursday. The players who featured in the 1-0 victory against Russia had the luxury of a morning off at the team's hotel while the rest of the squad enjoyed a light training session before signing some autographs and giving out posters to fans.

Isco and Daniel Carvajal have been selected to join coach Julen Lopetegui in Saturday's pre-match press conference at the Netanya Municipal Stadium at 20:30CET. They will have no excuse to be late as physio 'Tico' Gómez, who has been described as the most practical member of the Spanish contingent, always wears a watch on each arm: one telling the time in Israel and the other in Spain.