Players to look out for: Euro U-21

Denmark is home to Europe's Under-21 Championships. The competition that has introduced and showcased some of Europe's finest talents. In the last championships, it was most notably Mesut Özil and the rest of the German national team that grabbed the rest of the world's attention in Sweden.

Let's briefly take a look at a few players to watch out for as we get set for this tournament. 

Thiago Alcântara, 20 (Spain)

He's another La Masia academy product from Barcelona and he has slowly started making his way into Barcelona's senior squad. Since his first appearance in the 08-09 season for the senior Barcelona team, Alcântara has made a total of 20 appearances, scoring 4 goals. He is regarded as Xavi's eventual successor by most. He operates in the center of midfield, is a great dribbler and like all Barcelona players - has great vision. Alcântara is also composed when playing further up the pitch and he does have an eye for a pass when necessary. 

Phil Jones, 19 (England)

Phil Jones has enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame, putting in excellent performances for Blackburn Rovers. His big injury in December meant that Blackburn fought for relegation throughout the season, but upon his return, the team looked much more secure in defence.

Jones plays center back naturally, and is composed on the ball. He can also tackle and play as a defensive midfielder - which he usually did under former manager, Sam Allardyce. He looks set to join Manchester United after the Champions agreed to match his £16 million buyout clause. Sir Alex Ferguson had to move quickly as interest was shown by Tottenham, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea. Recently, Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp described him possibly as England's future captain. He will pair up with Manchester United's Chris Smalling at the heart of defence. 

 

Here is a recent display he put in against Manchester United. 

Christian Eriksen, 19 (Denmark)

Ajax's attacking midfielder delivers a great ball consistently, is technically gifted and his movement with and off the ball is fantastic. 

Eriksen caught a lot of people's attention when he lined up against England earlier in the year. Most football pundits were expecting Jack Wilshere to shine, but it was actually Eriksen who stole all the headlines - putting in a great performance. He was influential for Ajax in winning their first Eredivisie in seven years. He has attracted attention from all the top sides around Europe but will make his debut for the U-21's for Denmark. 

Andriy Yarmolenko, 21 (Ukraine) 

Ukraine's left-winger, Yarmolenko, had a very impressive domestic season for Dynamo Kyiv. He set his personal best record for Kyiv - scoring 15 goals in 41 appearances. He played his part in Kyiv's Europa league run, with 11 appearances and 3 goals. He is tall (6'1) and can play upfront as well. 

Yarmolenko is seen as Ukraine's biggest threat, and his record for his national side is respectable - having scored 3 times in just 8 caps. 

Gylfi Sigurðsson, 21 (Iceland)

Sigurðsson is becoming a dead-ball specialist and his long-range shooting is not that bad either. After having trials at Arsenal, spending some time at Reading, he has slowly started to settle at Hoffenheim. He has enjoyed his football in Germany - being named fans' player of the year and scoring ten goals, assisting two, in just 12 starts this season. 

Naturally, Sigurðsson is a midfielder, but can play in the hole in a more advanced position. Iceland will be hoping Sigurðsson can make a big impact.

Other players to keep an eye out for: Javi Martinez (Spain), Jordan Henderson (England), David De Gea (Spain), Tomas Pekhart (Czech Republic), Xherdan Shaqiri (Switzerland), Adam Hloušek (Czech Republic), Danny Welbeck (England), Juan Mata (Spain)

Post-Game: 2011 Champions League Final

vs.

FC Barcelona 3 - 1 Manchester United

FC Barcelona came out victorious in the 2011 Champions League final. The Catalans were worthy winners with goals coming from the front line - Pedro, Messi and Villa. 

What happened?

Similar to 2009's final, Manchester United started very well - pressing Barcelona high up the pitch. Rooney and Hernandez forced Barcelona into making early mistakes in the first five minutes (from Mascherano and Valdes). 

On the other side of the pitch, M

essi also pressured high, trying to force Vidic and Ferdinand to play the long ball into the midfield. Victor Valdes anticipated the long balls briliantly, once stopping Rooney from a 1-on-1 (which came from Van Der Sar to Rooney). Giggs also picked out a great ball to hernandez and had it not been for Valdes, Barcelona would have been in a very uncomfortable position. 

Lineups: 

Pep Guardiola switched David Villa to the right wing and Pedro to the left wing, a switch he has previously tested against Real Madrid. V

illa's role was that of an inside forward and Pedro gave the Catalans more natural width. It was interesting to see X

avi in a more advanced position, although this could have been due to United giving Barcelona a lot of space in midfield and failing to close them down. Mascherano played center back alongside Pique and Abidal played left-back instead of Puyol. Manchester United played the same team as expected.

The goals: 

Barcelona's first goal came from Xavi's advanced position, but this time Pedro was on his natural right wing, while Villa was on the left. Both Villa and Pedro drifted inside while Xavi was taking up the advanced position. When Xavi came closer to the 18 yard box, Both Pedro and Villa drifted off into wide positions. The problem for United was that Vidic did not anticipate Pedro's run, and once he did - it was too late for the Serbian. Similar to 2009, Edwin Van Der Sar was beaten nearside, to the left. It was a well orchestrated goal, but one that was preventable. 

Michael Carrick fails to make the interception which gives Xavi acres of space to attack.

                                

 Xavi advances the ball down the pitch. Notice Vidic, who he fails to track his runner - Pedro. 

The first goal was very interesting, both Pedro and Villa stuck near the center of the attack and drifted apart once they got closer to the 18-yard box. Pedro gets in between Evra and Vidic and does a great job drifting away from the Serbian. The ball from Xavi was an excellent one, and by the time Vidic reacts to make a last ditch tackle, it's too late - and the ball is in the back of the net. 

Manchester United's goal started from quick interplay between Fabio, Michael Carrick and Wayne Rooney. Rooney attacked the space brilliantly, found Giggs in space who laid it back into the path of Rooney - from there, it was a great finish. On first glance the goal seemed to be offside, but Abidal's trailing leg might have kept Giggs onside. A matter of centimeters, if anything.

A closer look - Giggs' and Abidal's leg were on the line, a very close call from the linesman - but an excellent goal nonetheless. 

The equalizer gave Manchester United a second shot to alter their tactics after half time, but the Catalans came out much stronger in the second half. Barcelona dominated the midfiled. After half-time, United opted for Park in the middle beside Carrick and Giggs on the left. 

The second Barcelona goal was a result of quick interplay from Andres Iniesta and Messi. The Argentine attacked the space brilliantly and United failed to close him down in time. Although a wonderful strike, Van Der Sar could have done better. In the post match, he said he believed Messi was going to curl it outside, but he was beaten once again. It was another goal that could have been prevented had Man United closed down the space quickly. 

Barcelona's third goal came right after Nani was substited for the inurjed Fabio. Messi positioned himself into the right hand side taking Nani on, which he did with ease. It seemed as though United killed the play, but failed clearances from Carrick and Nani allowed Busquets to find David Villa who killed the ball dead with his right foot and curled the ball wonderfully into the top right hand corner. From there Barcelona saw out the match with United creating half chances. 

Overview:

Perhaps United's inability to close down the space in midfield suggests that they should have opted for 3 central midfielders instead of two. The fact that Hernandez was isolated in the second half with little to no service supports this notion. Barcelona have the best midfield trio in the world in Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets, playing against them with two central midfielders is very challenging. It's also very hard to beat Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets with three central-midfielders, let alone two. Sir Alex believed Park would be better deployed in the middle instead of the wing to stop Barcelona, instead Barcelona found even more space to work with, and that is ultimately how they won the game. Chicharito received very little service, the Mexican was offside a few times and could not beat Barcelona's offside trap. 

Barcelona were victorious in Wembley, securing their fourth European cup, their third in six years and Lionel Messi finally scored on English soil.