By Jamie Bradbury. Saturday, 16 June 2007.
2007 UEFA European Under-21 Championship
De Goffert Stadion, Nijmegen
7.45pm (UK time), Sunday 17 June 2007
Live on Sky Sports
Leroy Lita bounced back from his penalty miss in style on Thursday night, smashing home England’s second against Italy, and he’s hungry for more goals to help fire the Three Lions into the Semi-Finals.
Stuart Pearce’s men meet Serbia in Nijmegen on Sunday night knowing a win will see them into the last four.
The Reading hitman, who now has four goals for the Under-21s, is confident he can add to his tally here in Holland and won’t be put off by anything.
“I love scoring goes and the celebrations showed that, I hope I can celebrate more goals like that out here,” said Lita.
“If you want to be successful you’ve got to be prepared for the downfalls. I’m prepared to take that on board. All the great players have gone through bad patches or made mistakes and as long as you don’t get yourself down then you’ll be able to bounce back.
“I never doubt myself. Against Italy I missed two good chances, but I‘d rather be there to miss them than not be there at all.”
Both of those opportunities arrived moments before David Nugent put England in front while they threw everything at their opponents. For the first one, Lita was put through one on one with Emiliano Viviano.
After doing everything right, going around the Italian keeper, Lita put his shot wide.
“I think I lost concentration, I thought it was going to be too easy, I thought I’d scored before the ball was in. That’s a mistake by me and I’ll hold my hands up, I’ll never hide and I’ll make sure I’m there for the next one,” said Lita.
“The only way you can put it right is by getting up and doing it again.
“We needed a good start and we got that. We scored two good goals and had chances before that. It’s unfortunate for us that Italy got back into it, but overall I think it was a fair result.”
Now Lita is focused on their final Group B game against Serbia and is hoping that he is given the chance to get on the scoresheet again.
“We’ve obviously got a big game on Sunday, we need to win that to get through. We’re going to go out there and give it our best shot.
“They are growing in confidence, they’ve won their first two games and they look a good team, it’s going to be a tough game.
“Hopefully I can stay in there, score goals for the team and push on. We’ll go out there, be positive and try and win the game.”
England
Goalkeepers
1 Scott Carson, 13 Joe Hart, 22 Ben Alnwick
Defenders
2 Justin Hoyte, 3 Leighton Baines, 4 Steven Taylor, 5 Anton Ferdinand, 6 Gary Cahill, 14 Liam Rosenior, 20 Nedum Onuoha
Midfielders
7 Nigel Reo-Coker (c), 9 Kieran Richardson, 11 Ashley Young, 12 Wayne Routledge, 15 James Milner, 17 Tom Huddlestone, 18 Mark Noble, 23 Peter Whittingham
Forwards
10 David Nugent, 16 Leroy Lita, 19 Matthew Derbyshire, 21 James Vaughan,
Coach Stuart Pearce
Serbia
Goalkeepers
1 Damir Kahriman, 12 Igor Stefanović, 23 Aleksandar Kesić
Defenders
2 Branislav Ivanović, 4 Nemanja Rnić, 5 Gojko Kačar, 6 Aleksandar Kolarov, 11 Duško Tošić, 15 Predrag Pavlović, 19 Dušan Basta, 20 Slobodan Rajković, 22 Nikola Petković
Midfielders
3 Antonio Rukavina, 7 Milan Smiljanić, 8 Boško Janković, 10 Dejan Milovanović, 13 Nikola Drinčić, 14 Stefan Babović, 16 Djordje Ivelja, 17 Miloš Krasić
Forwards
9 Djordje Rakić, 18 Dragan Mrdja, 21 Zoran Tošić
Coach Miroslav Djukic
Kit Colours
England White shirts, Blue shorts, White socks
Goalkeeper Aubergine shirt, Aubergine shorts, White socks
Serbia Red shirts, Blue shorts, Red socks
Goalkeeper Black shirt, Black shorts, Black socks
Match Officials
Referee TBC
Assistant Referees TBC
Fourth official TBC