England Under-21s, with Everton’s James Garner at right-back, beat Spain in the final of the European Under-21s Championship in Georgia to win the competition for the third time in history.
England had reached the final for the first time in 14 years and were aiming to lift the trophy for the first time in nearly years, having been European Champions in 1982 and 1984 whereas Spain have won it five times, with three of those triumphs coming in the last six tournaments, the most recent in 2019.
With former Everton midfielder Lee Carsley as head coach, the Young Lions had breezed through the group stage with a trio of 2-0 wins and then eliminated Portugal and Israel in the knockout rounds on their way to the final.
Garner was a fixture in a new right-back role throughout the competition with his Blues club-mate Jarrad Branthwaite named on the bench and it was same again from Carsley in the final in which Garner played the full 90 minutes.
It took a dramatic penalty save in the last minute from Burnley-bound James Trafford to not only preserve England’s clean sheet record in throughout this year’s tournament but to also guarantee them the trophy.
In first-half stoppage time, Cole Palmer’s free-kick had deflected off Curtis Jones and gone in to hand Carsley’s men the only goal of the game but when Lewis Colwill was adjudged to have fouled Abel Ruiz, the Spaniards had the chance to force extra time. However, Trafford came up trumps.