Under-21 final: England vs Spain facts

England and Spain meet in the UEFA European Under-21 Championship final at the Batumi Arena with each looking to claim the trophy again after impressive campaigns in Georgia and Romania.

While England are still to concede a goal in their five matches in the final tournament – scoring ten themselves, all in victories – Spain edged through in first place in Group B on goal difference and needed extra time to see off Switzerland in the quarter-finals but turned on the style in the last four, coming from a goal down to overwhelm Ukraine 5-1.

Although the teams have rarely met at Under-21 level, there is plenty of history between the two sets of players. Spain – under current U21 head coach Santi Denia – edged out England on penalties in the 2017 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final, but England took their revenge in the final of the FIFA U-17 World Cup later the same year.

Spain have never beaten England in a competitive U21 fixture, England winning three of the sides' four European U21 Championship fixtures, scoring six goals and conceding only one.

Final facts

Currently level with Italy on five U21 titles, victory would make Spain the most successful side in the competition's history – and give them their fourth triumph in the last seven editions.

This is Spain's ninth final, more than any other country; Italy are second on seven.

England are aiming to win their third title, level with Germany; only Spain and Italy have won more.

This is England's fourth U21 EURO final, level with Serbia; Spain, Italy and Germany (five) are the only countries to have featured more.

This is the second time the teams have met in the final, after England's 3-0 aggregate victory in 1984. It is the fourth fixture to have been played twice or more in the final; England played West Germany in 1982 and Germany in 2009, Spain and Italy have met in three finals, in 1986, 1996 and 2013, while Spain and Germany were the finalists in both 2017 and 2019.

Previous meetings

This is only the sides' fifth competitive U21 fixture, and a first since Matchday 1 of the 2011 finals when Danny Welbeck's 88th-minute equaliser rescued a 1-1 draw for Stuart Pearce's England after Ander Herrera's 14th-minute opener for Spain.

However, while England went on to finish third in Group B having picked up only one more point, Luis Milla's Spain won their next two games to top the section before beating Belarus (3-1 aet) and Switzerland (2-0) in the knockout stages to claim their third U21 title.

Pearce's team had come out on top two years earlier, second-half goals from Fraizer Campbell (67) and James Milner (73) earning a 2-0 Matchday 2 win against a Spain side coached by Juan Ramón López Caro.

At those 2009 finals England progressed from Group B as section winners with Spain eliminated in third place; the Young Lions beat hosts Sweden on penalties in the last four but lost in the final to a Germany side that had finished second in Group B.

England claimed their second U21 title with a 3-0 aggregate win against Spain in the 1984 final. Mel Sterland scored the only goal of the first leg at Seville's Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán six minutes into the second period, and Dave Sexton's side completed an aggregate triumph against a Spain team coached by Luis Suárez thanks to second-half goals from Mark Hateley (49) and Howard Gayle (51) in the second leg at Bramall Lane in Sheffield.

That 2011 draw was also the sides' last U21 fixture. They have played only five friendlies, most recently a 2-2 draw in Derby in February 2007 in which the home side came from two down.

Each side have won two of those five friendlies. Spain's last success against England was a 1-0 home win in Alcalá de Henares in November 2004 in which Cesc Fàbregas scored the only goal.

Captain Abel Ruiz and Sergio Gómez both scored in the shoot-out as Santi's Spain beat England 4-1 on penalties in the 2017 European U17 Championship final. Juan Miranda, Hugo Guillamón and Antonio Blanco also featured for Spain with Víctor Gómez and England's Emile Smith Rowe unused substitutes.

Two Gómez goals gave Spain a 2-0 lead against England in the 2017 U-17 World Cup final in Kolkata, but this time the Young Lions came out on top, Morgan Gibbs-White scoring their second goal in an eventual 5-2 victory in which Phil Foden also scored twice. Miranda, Guillamón, Blanco and captain Ruiz started alongside Gómez for Spain with Angel Gomes a 90th-minute substitute for Steve Cooper's England and Smith Rowe again an unused replacement.

Ruiz had also been in the Spain side that beat England 1-0 in the previous year's U17 EURO quarter-finals.

Form guide

England

This is England's fourth U21 final, but only their second since 1984. Their record is W2 L1:
1982 West Germany W 5-4 agg (3-1 h, 2-3 a)
1984 Spain W 3-0 agg (1-0 a, 2-0 h)
2009 Germany L 0-4

England's 4-0 loss to Germany in Malmö 14 years ago remains the heaviest defeat in a single-leg U21 final.

England are in the knockout stages for the fourth time since an eight-team final tournament was introduced in 1998. Before this tournament they had won only one of their four knockout ties in those finals, that win on penalties against Sweden in 2009. Having lost on penalties to both the Netherlands in the 2007 semi-finals and Germany at the same stage in 2017, their only regulation defeat was to Germany in the 2009 final.

This is England's ninth successive final tournament campaign – the longest ongoing sequence in the competition – and an 11th overall; they last missed out in 2006.

Champions in 1982 and 1984, England also reached four further semi-finals in the first six editions of the European U21 Championship.

However, this is only the second time in their last seven finals campaigns that the Young Lions have progressed from the group stage, reaching the semi-finals in 2017. Going into this tournament they had won just four of their previous 19 finals matches, losing ten.

In 2021, a late Croatia goal in England's 2-1 Matchday 3 victory meant Aidy Boothroyd's side finished level on three points with their opponents but were eliminated on goals scored in a three-way head-to-head also involving Switzerland, finishing bottom of the section.

Before this tournament the win against Croatia was England's only victory in seven finals games (D2 L4).

Lee Carsley's team won eight of their ten qualifiers to finish three points clear of Czechia in the 2023 preliminaries, although a 2-1 home loss to Slovenia in the last game in their group on 13 June 2022 ended England's record 54-game unbeaten run in U21 qualifying (W47 D7), dating back to 14 November 2011.

Folarin Balogun, who is not in the final tournament squad, was England's top scorer in qualifying with six goals. Taylor Harwood-Bellis made the most appearances, starting all ten matches.

England finished top of Group C having beaten Czechia, Israel and Germany all 2-0, before Anthony Gordon's 34th-minute strike proved enough to see off Portugal in the third quarter-final.

Despite an early Morgan Gibbs-White penalty miss, goals from Gibbs-White (42), Cole Palmer (63) and substitute Cameron Archer (90) proved enough to see off Israel 3-0 in the semi-finals at the Batumi Arena – England's biggest win in a U21 semi-final.

The Young Lions have won their last six U21 EURO finals games, and have been victorious in 14 of their last 16 U21 EURO qualifying and final tournament matches (D1 L1).

Archer, Smith Rowe and Gordon are among ten players on two goals after the semi-finals, one behind top scorers Georgiy Sudakov of Ukraine and Spain pair Ruiz and Gómez.

England have emulated Spain in 2013, who reached the final with a 100% winning record and no goals conceded. Spain then beat Italy 4-2 in the decider.

Spain 

Spain's final record is W5 L3:
1984: England L 0-3 agg (0-1 h, 0-2 a)
1986: Italy W 3-0 pens, 3-3 on agg (1-2 a, 2-1 h)
1996: Italy L 1-1 (aet; 2-4 pens)
1998: Greece W 1-0
2011: Switzerland W 2-0
2013: Italy W 4-2
2017: Germany L 0-1
2019: Germany W 2-1

Spain are in the final tournament for the 11th time overall and the seventh in eight editions, failing to qualify only in 2015 during that sequence.

La Rojita have been champions in three of the last six tournaments – 2011, 2013 and 2019. They have not failed to progress from their group since 2009.

Two years ago, a team coached by Luis de la Fuente took seven points to finish top of Group B ahead of Italy before seeing off Croatia in the quarter-finals, only to lose 1-0 to Portugal in the last four.

Spain won all eight of their qualifying fixtures for the 2023 finals, finishing nine points clear of runners-up Slovakia in Group C. They scored 37 goals and conceded only five. Ruiz was the team's leading individual marksman with seven goals.

On 8 December 2022 De La Fuente was appointed coach of Spain's senior side following Luis Enrique's departure after the FIFA World Cup and replaced by Santi Denia.

Spain have already won European titles under Santi at Under-17 level in 2017 and U19 level in 2019. They were also runners-up to England under the same coach at the 2017 U-17 World Cup.

Santi's side kicked off the finals with a 3-0 win against co-hosts Romania before Ruiz scored after only 20 seconds – the fastest goal in U21 EURO finals history – to see off Croatia 1-0 on Matchday 2. That sealed progress, although it needed a 90th-minute Ruiz strike to salvage a 2-2 draw against Ukraine in their concluding Group B game and prevent their opponents taking first place at their expense.

Spain have made it out of their group at their last six finals appearances (2011, 2013, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023), a competition record.

For the second tournament running Spain took the lead in their quarter-final – this time through Gómez in the 68th minute – only to concede an added-time equaliser, Switzerland levelling in the 91st minute, before eventually prevailing 2-1, Miranda with the winner in the 103rd minute.

Spain fell behind early on in their semi-final against Ukraine but were ahead by the break thanks to goals from Ruiz (17) and Oihan Sancet (24), second-half strikes from Blanco (54), Aimar Oroz (68) and Gómez (78) completing their biggest semi-final victory. It was also only the third time a team had scored five times in a semi-final match.

Spain's fifth goal in the semi-final was their 50th of the campaign, including qualifying.

Ruiz and Gómez are level with Ukraine's Sudakov on three goals at the top of the top scorer chart for the finals; Miranda is among the ten players on two goals.

Links and trivia

Both England and Spain have equalled the record of seven different players scoring in the U21 EURO finals, not counting own goals.

England goalkeeper James Trafford is the only player from either side to have appeared for every minute of these finals. Spain's Sancet is the only other to have started all five matches – though he has been substituted in all of them.

Gómez joined Manchester City from Anderlecht on 16 August 2022. He made 12 Premier League appearances in the club's title-winning campaign, also featured five times as City claimed the UEFA Champions League for the first time and played four times in the FA Cup – which City also won.

Gómez's team-mates in Manchester include Trafford, Harwood-Bellis, Tommy Doyle and Palmer although Trafford, Harwood-Bellis and Doyle all spent 2022/23 on loan elsewhere.

Luke Thomas made his first European start in Leicester's 4-0 win at home to Braga in the UEFA Europa League group stage on 5 November 2020; Ruiz played 62 minutes for the Portuguese club.