U21 EURO daily bulletin: Monday 22 June

Group A
Czech Republic
Tomáš Kalas faced the press and admitted he would love to not only reach the U21 EURO semi-finals by beating Germany on Tuesday, but also clinch a place at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. "Not everyone can say they have been to an Olympics," the Chelsea defender said. "It has been a great source of motivation for all of us since the beginning of the tournament." Coach Jakub Dovalil said he had his full squad available bar the injured Václav Kadlec.

Denmark
Denmark captain Jannik Vestergaard, speaking as part of a Twitter Q&A with UEFA.com, said the squad had been playing video games to pass the time in Prague, but the Werder Bremen man pragmatically opts not to pick himself. "It's not that much fun when the players don't do exactly what you want them to do," he said. "And to be honest I'm not very good as a player in the game, so I prefer to play with some of the big clubs!"

Germany in training©Getty Images

Germany 
Germany coach Horst Hrubesch spoke of his "fascination" with taking part in the Olympic Games, saying he could give "a 30-minute monologue" about why the match at the Eden Stadium offers the chance to fulfil a dream as well reaching the semi-finals. Taking a break from football, Hrubesch visited Czech singer Karel Gott more than 20 years after their first meeting – they performed the song 'Babička' together for German TV. 

Serbia
The Serbia players had the morning off and went out for a walk while coach Mladen Dodić conducted an interview with UEFA's Technical Observers on his coaching methods. After lunch the team gathered to discuss tactics for the decisive match against Denmark, before Dodić and captain Marko Petković attended the evening press conference before training at the Letná Stadium in Prague. Much of the rest of the day was spent tuning into footage of the country's FIFA U-20 World Cup winners returning to Belgrade.

Group B
England
The squad trained in Olomouc on Monday afternoon, with just a light work-out for those involved in the Sweden game. Reserve goalkeeper Jonathan Bond returning to training after rolling his foot before the Sweden fixture, but one player who will play no further part in the competition is midfielder Alex Pritchard after scans confirmed he suffered ankle ligament damage against Sweden. The only pity for the squad is that, at the time of writing, the rain in Olomouc appeared to have ruined plans for a crazy golf evening.

Danilo Cataldi tracks Sérgio Oliveira©Sportsfile

Italy
Italy midfielder Danilo Cataldi spoke at a press conference on Monday and said: "Our minds are focused totally on England. We are only thinking about winning. Our chances of reaching the semi-finals are not very good but things can change quickly. The game against England will be very complicated but against Portugal we showed our quality. We have to win." The players who did not feature in the draw with Portugal took part in a full training session on Monday afternoon; those who played rested at the hotel. 

Portugal
The afternoon ended with a light training session – watched, as ever, by a very special observer. Directly in front of the sporting complex used by Portugal is a care home and one elderly female resident can be seen using binoculars to keep a close eye on the squad. Sweden could do worse than ask her for the inside line on Wednesday's opponents …

Sweden
The Sweden team had a free afternoon after a morning training session for the players not involved against England. Those who did play had a gym session. Sweden coach Håkan Ericson spoke in his press conference about the question of his players lacking intensity against England owing to the fact they had played for 62 minutes against Italy with ten men. He explained that he had spoken to several players about their readiness to face England and that he trusted them to decide on their ability to cope with fatigue – and would do the same once more against Portugal.