U21 EURO daily bulletin: Tuesday 23 June

Group B

England
England trained on Tuesday afternoon at the Ander Stadium after which coach Gareth Southgate said he had a fully-fit squad, with the exception of Alex Pritchard, the midfielder ruled out of the competition with injury on Monday. Pritchard will stay on to watch the Italy game when John Stones is expected to return in central defence after concussion, although Southgate said of Stones, the joker in the pack: "We're never sure with Stonesy whether he is still groggy or not." Midfielder Nathaniel Chalobah joined Southgate at the press conference and recalled losing to Italy in the 2013 group stage of this tournament. "The last time we played against Italy wasn't a really good memory for me. We didn't play as well as we could have and that is something we're looking to put right."

Italy
Midfielder Marco Benassi relaxed with the rest of the squad before speaking at the Ander Stadium press conference, where he resisted providing England with any additional motivation by talking up Gareth Southgate's team. "I don't think England are over-rated," he said. "If they reached this stage of the competition, it means they have a very good team." As well as senior coach Antonio Conte, the team will be supported by Italian Football Federation president Carlo Tavecchio on Wednesday. He said: "I'm here to support the team. The Azzurrini have an important goal – to reach the semi-finals. Everyone is behind [coach Luigi] Di Biagio."

Portugal 
The squad's evening session at Sportovni Arial in Batov, close to their base at Otrokovice, got under way with a couple of games of keepy-uppies. Bernardo Silva was in the first group closest to a group of onlooking journalists, who saw a ritual whereby each player has to control the ball twice before passing to a team-mate. Not a simple pass, however, but one designed to make it as tricky as possible to control the ball because after three mistakes the offending player has an ear flicked – gently, of course – by all the others in the circle.

Sweden
Coach Håkan Ericson was in relaxed mood as he took questions from Portuguese journalists in the official pre-match press conference in Uherske Hradiste. Asked what he knows about Portugal, the Sweden coach joked "I think I've seen it on a map!" before saying of his two trips to the country: "The first was to see Sven-Göran Eriksson lead a training session. He had a home in Cascais. The second was for a friendly that we won." That game was the last meeting between the sides at Under-21 level, on 21 March 2013, Mikael Ishak scoring the only goal after 18 minutes in Viseu. Ericson would certainly settle for a repeat of that scoreline on Wednesday.

Group A

Czech Republic 1-1 Germany
• Ladislav Krejčí cancelled out Nico Schulz's goal but the point took Germany through as group runners-up with the hosts stuck in third place.
• "We weren't terrible but there are things we need to talk about. We're just happy to be in the last four for the moment." Marc-André ter Stegen, Germany goalkeeper (Full reaction)

Denmark 2-0 Serbia
• Rasmus Falk and Viktor Fischer secured the 2-0 win that sent the Danes through as Group A winners, leaving Serbia bottom.
• "After the last game, against Germany, I was a bit worried about how we would go into this game. The way we pulled together as a team, and the way we played, makes me very happy." Jess Thorup, Denmark coach (Full reaction)