AUTHOR: Star Sports Content

European Under-21 Championship Starts Tonight

England U21 v Italy U21
European Under-21 Championship
TIME: 7.30pm
TV: Sky Sports 2

Back to the football….

We were right to oppose Brother Scott last night at Hexham, but unfortunately chose the wrong alternative.

The European Under-21 Championship gets underway tonight and England have a tough opening game against Italy.

The two teams have only clashed once before – that was in the 2012 Championships when Italy ran out 2-1 winners.

Overall England’s record in the tournament is good. They had back to back victories in 1982 and 1984 and reached the final in 2009 but were soundly beaten 4-0 by Germany.

England will look to continue their good record in this tournament in Israel but their lack of big game experience could be a good factor against them.

A new interesting piece of research shows that the playing time of English under-21s in the Premier League has fallen to its lowest level.

English under-21s made up 2.28% of the total minutes played in 2012-13 with Manchester City, Chelsea, Swansea, Stoke and Wigan failing to field an English player under 21 all season.

The new figures fall behind Italy (2.38%), Spain (3.40%), Germany (6.22%) and France (7.32%).

Manager Stuart Pearce takes charge of England’s Under-21s for a fourth successive tournament, and his young Lions head into it in superb form.

They have won their last nine matches, during which time they scored 22 goals without conceding, and topped their qualifying group with seven wins from eight matches before beating Serbia in a controversial two-legged play-off.

Italy also come into the tournament in good form under new coach Devis Mangia but are traditionally slow starters.

All in all it looks ripe for a draw, and I’m risking a point on a 0-0 one too.

STAR FORECAST
(stake between 0.5 and 10 points)
3 points DRAW England U21 v Italy U21
1 point 0-0 correct score England U21 v Italy U21

(-3 points Tuesday)

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GET OUT THE MIDDLE LANE

Drivers who hog the middle lane or tailgate other cars will face on-the-spot fines of £100 and three points on their licence.

Police are also expected to get powers to issue instant fixed penalty notices for not giving way at a junction or using the wrong lane at a roundabout.

Details of a crackdown on anti-social motoring are due to be released by the Government in a statement to Parliament today.

Transport minister Stephen Hammond said: “Careless drivers are a menace and their negligence puts innocent people’s lives at risk.

“That is why we are making it easier for the police to tackle problem drivers by allowing them to immediately issue a fixed penalty notice rather than needing to take every offender to court.

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