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Pezzaiuli: We could have won by more

Mario Pezzaiuli told uefa.com that he felt Germany could have beaten Turkey by more than 3-1 while in the other Group B game the coaches of the Netherlands and England both took a similar view of their 1-1 draw.

Germany celebrate their victory against Turkey in Erfurt
Germany celebrate their victory against Turkey in Erfurt ©Sportsfile

Germany coach Mario Pezzaiuli told uefa.com that he felt his team could have won by even more after the UEFA European Under-17 Championship hosts case from behind to defeat Turkey 3-1 in their opening Group B fixture. England drew 1-1 with the Netherlands after Jong Oranje captain Oguzhan Özyakup's early strike was cancelled out by Luke Garbutt ten minutes from time and both coaches agreed that the timing of the goals was a reflection of the game.

Germany 3-1 Turkey
Marco Pezzaiuoli, Germany coach
In the first few minutes we played well, then Turkey scored, we fell asleep for the corner. But there is a good atmosphere in the team, they have pride and they came again and we scored, a very nice goal from Kevin Scheidhauer. I think the last 15 minutes of the first half was too passive. In the second half we pressed and created chances. We got two very good goals but we had two other really big chances and if I have to criticsie the players it's that we didn't score five or six goals, because we had a good chance of doing that.

Abdullah Ercan. Turkey coach
Actually we started the game well, and then we scored. But after Germany equalised immediately we were unable to execute our plans. In the second half we took risks in order to win the game but in the end one of our players was sent off. Therefore we lost the game and we congratulate Germany. We will keep going until the end, and if we get a chance to qualify we will go for it.

England 1-1 Netherlands
John Peacock, England manager

It was a very good advert for youth football, I thought there were two very good teams out there, who passed the ball very well, competed correctly, and it was hopefully a good spectacle for the supporters. We started by losing a goal very early in five minutes and that's not the best way of going through the first game of a competition. The first 15 or 20 minutes we had problems, especially with the left-back and right-back getting out a bit too easily. So we changed that and make sure we got a bit closer to their full-backs and I think as a result we came back into the game strongly for the last 15 or 20 minutes of the first half. In the second half we showed a lot of character and deservedly got something out of the game.

Albert Stuivenberg, Netherlands coach
I think we started very well, with the early goal. We could have scored a second immediately. So I was pleased with the first 20 or 25 minutes but later on we had great problems, England were pushing us further back, but also because we did not do our job very well. We tried to press further up and the back line ran back so there was too much space for England; they have some great players. We tried to change at half-time as [Jack Wilshere] was too dangerous for us. But there was too much pressure on our team, and I was not very pleased when we had the ball, we lost it too fast. So after the equaliser the last ten minutes were crucial, and we were lucky.