England U21s take another step towards qualifying for European Championships with Holland draw

England under-21s took another step towards qualifying for next year’s European Championships despite lacking spark in their meeting with Holland.

A frustrating 0-0 draw leaves Aidy Boothroyd’s side five points clear of their group with three matches remaining of the qualification campaign.

With matches against Latvia, Andorra and Scotland to come, England will be expected to comfortably seal their place at the tournament, held in Italy and San Marino, after avoiding defeat against second-placed Holland.

The concern for Boothroyd will be that England have twice failed to overcome the Dutch, having also drawn with tonight's opponents in September. They have impressed against lesser teams, but have been unable to demonstrate their class against higher calibre opponents.

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There will still have been lessons learned from this draw, though, and there were a smattering of encouraging individual performances, particularly from Demarai Gray and Ben Chilwell down the left-hand side.

In keeping with the modern England, Boothroyd’s side began the evening with a three-man defence. Fulham’s Ryan Sessegnon started as left wing-back, while Crystal Palace’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka made his England under-21 debut on the opposite flank.

The formation was unusual, then, but England started brightly as Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin went close twice in the opening two minutes. His first effort was prodded over before a second was well saved.

There were also nice moments from Leicester City duo Demarai Gray and James Maddison, who enjoyed the occasional flourish at his former home stadium, but England grew increasingly short of ideas as the half progressed.

If anything, they were lucky not to be trailing at the break as Holland quickly worked out the home formation and began to launch a series dangerous counter-attacking raids.

The sharp Arnaut Groeneveld was a particular problem down the left wing, to the extent that Boothroyd was forced to end the experiment and revert to a back four before half an hour had passed.

The change allowed England to reassert their dominance soon enough, though, with Josh Onomah scuffing a shot on target before Sessegnon’s long-range effort was tipped over the bar.

The Fulham teenager was having an erratic evening, but came close again in the second half when he fired over from close range after the excellent Chilwell had provided a fine cross.

Still England lacked cutting edge, and Boothroyd turned to the two strikers on his bench, Tammy Abraham and Dominic Solanke, to provide energy in attack. England’s struggles up front were summarised most neatly by substitute Tom Davies, who failed to even connect with the ball as he tried to win the game with a late volley.