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Alan Smith's England U21 player ratings after Germany defeat

England's Nathan Redmond looks dejected after his missed  penalty meant England go out of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship, Semi Final match at Stad
Image: Nathan Redmond missed the decisive penalty

How did England's players fare in their European U21 Championship semi-final defeat to Germany?

Aidy Boothroyd's side were beaten 4-3 on penalties after a 2-2 draw over 120 minutes, narrowly missing out on a place in the final in Poland.

But who impressed and who struggled? Sky Sports pundit Alan Smith gives his ratings...

Jordan Pickford - 7

He had a good game. He didn't have any chance with the goals. He came out and punched a lot of balls, and of course he saved a penalty in the shootout. He did his bit.

Mason Holgate - 5

It wasn't the first time he has been withdrawn. We didn't get quite as much from him as we might have wanted. He stayed tight to Serge Gnabry in the first half, but it wasn't his best game overall.

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Alfie Mawson - 6

Unfortunately, he couldn't make much of an impact in the opposition box in the way that he has done before, but it was a very steady performance next to Chambers.

England players look dejected after Nathan Redmond missed  his penalty meaning England go out of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship, Semi Final match
Image: England players show their dejection after their defeat to Germany

Calum Chambers - 8

I thought he was really good, I thought he was one of England's best players. He got in a lot of blocks and he was very good positionally. He was involved in Demarai Gray's goal, too.

Ben Chilwell - 6

He couldn't repeat what he did against Poland, rampaging up that left side. I think Germany had seen that and they did a bit of a number on him at times.

Nathaniel Chalobah - 6

You could see he wasn't really fully fit, he was struggling through. Full marks for his attitude to try and do a job for his country, but eventually it caught up with him.

James Ward-Prowse - 7

I thought he did well. Some beautiful balls into the box with his corners and free kicks. He played the captain's role, his passing and general play was good. He tucked away his penalty brilliantly.

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Highlights of the Under-21 European Championships semi-final between England and Germany

Lewis Baker - 5

I was disappointed with him. He was put back in that No 10 position - at least for the first half - but he couldn't really give England that little something they needed in the final third. He couldn't find the pockets of space. He scored his penalty but I was disappointed by his performance.

Will Hughes - 8

I liked him a lot. I thought he was vying with Chambers to be our best player. He did brilliantly for Tammy Abraham's goal. He showed some classy touches and carried the ball well.

Demarai Gray - 6

His goal was composure personified. It would have been easy to slash that over but he kept his cool. Overall, though, he wasn't as effective as he was against Poland and had to do a lot more defending in the second half.

Tammy Abraham - 6

He got himself a goal, which I was pleased about, but it was a difficult night for him because the more the match went on, the further away he was from his team-mates. He was fighting for high balls and trying to hold it up down the channels but it was an impossible task.

Tammy Abraham (pictured) and Nathan Redmond saw their penalties saved as England were knocked out of the U21 Euros by Germany
Image: Tammy Abraham also missed from the penalty spot

Substitutes

Jacob Murphy - 6

He offered a bit of energy down the right-hand side.

Nathan Redmond - 5

He missed the decisive penalty, you've got to feel for him. He lost his rag a couple of times with some of the German lads, maybe that was a sign of him losing his focus.

John Swift - 5

I can't remember too many of his touches.

Dominic Iorfa - 5

He gave us some energy with his first couple of touches but that seemed to come to end after that.

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