Leeds United youngster Charlie Cresswell will be eyeing international silverware this summer after being named in the England squad for the 2023 UEFA European U21 Championships. Cresswell was included in Lee Carsley’s training squad earlier this month and he has now made the final cut for the tournament.
As such, he will travel out to Georgia in the coming days with the rest of the England U21s squad to prepare for their opening group stage game next week. The Three Lions have been drawn to take on Czech Republic, Israel and Germany in Group C, with all three games taking part in Georgia, with the country sharing hosting duties with Romania.
England will play their first group game against Czech Republic on June 22 in Batumi and Cresswell will hope to secure a starting spot after recently returning from a facial injury. The centre-back, who has spent the season catching the eye while on loan with Millwall, has plenty of competition, though.
Taylor Harwood-Bellis of Manchester City, Everton’s Jarrad Branthwaite and Chelsea defender Levi Colwill, who has been asked to train with the senior England squad this week, have also been included in the side. Carsley knows England’s route through the tournament is far from straight forward and should they make it through the group, they will take on a qualifier from Group A, which contains Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium and Georgia.
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England won the competition in 1982 and 1984, but they last reached the final in 2009. With talents such as Harvey Elliott, Jacob Ramsey, Morgan Gibbs-White and Emile Smith Rowe included in the squad, though, they’ll fancy their chances of ending the U21 sides’ wait for silverware.
Cresswell, who has nine U21s caps under his belt already will be joined at the tournament by a handful of Leeds teammates. Wilfried Gnonto has been included in the Italy squad, while Crysencio Summerville is due to represent the Netherlands, Illan Meslier will be in goal for France and Leo Hjelde and Kristoffer Klaesson are both in the Norway squad.
