Battling England hit back to down Germany

• England end Germany's seven-game unbeaten run
• Nathan Redmond and James Ward-Prowse score in three-minute spell to snatch win
• Philipp Hofmann puts Germany in front twice on his 22nd birthday
• Jesse Lingard hits his first U21 goal for England
• First finals games: Germany v Serbia (17 June), England v Portugal (18 June)

England struck twice in the final 11 minutes to earn a morale-boosting 3-2 victory over fellow UEFA European Under-21 Championship finalists Germany.

Trailing 2-1 to two Philipp Hofmann goals, Nathan Redmond fired the home side level before captain James Ward-Prowse drove in the winner eight minutes from time. It completed a productive few days for manager Gareth Southgate and his squad, who won 1-0 away to this summer's tournament hosts Czech Republic on Friday.

Germany celebrate Philipp Hofmann's first of the evening©Getty Images

Germany were unbeaten in seven games, including last week's 2-2 draw with Italy, when they arrived at Middlesbrough FC's Riverside Stadium and they opened the scoring with an emphatic Hofmann strike. The 1. FC Kaiserslautern forward span on to Christian Günter's ball into box and arrowed a left-foot shot into the bottom corner.

In front of an impressive 30,178 crowd, England came to life midway through the first half and after Danny Ings, from the edge of the box, was foiled by a diving save from Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Ings and Lingard both went close from the following corner. The home pressure paid off after 35 minutes when Carl Jenkinson crossed and Lingard applied a precise finish.

Two minutes later, Germany might have reclaimed the lead but Amin Younes sliced the rebound wide after Jonathan Bond had kept out Emre Can's free-kick. Instead it was Hofmann who got the visitors back in front early in the second half, sliding in to turn in Julian Korb's cross for his ninth goal in 15 U21 outings.

England took their time to reply but eventually the lively Redmond drove a low shot through a defender's legs and inside the far post with 11 minutes remaining. They were not done there as three minutes later Jenkinson slid a pass into the feet of Ward-Prowse and he found the corner of the net from 15 metres.

Ings might have even added a fourth, failing to beat Ter Stegen from close range, but Southgate will have already found plenty of cause for optimism.

England: Bond; Jenkinson, Stones, Gibson (Keane 77), Garbutt; Ward-Prowse, Forster-Caskey (Chambers 86), Hughes (Pritchard 66); Redmond, Ings, Lingard.

Germany: Ter Stegen; Korb, Ginter, Knoche, Günter; Can, Leitner (Kimmich 46); Bittencourt (Gnabry 46), Meyer (Schulz 69), Younes (Malli 77); Hofmann.