Carsley enjoying the chance to defend title with England

It is no surprise to hear that the past two years feel like something of a blur for Lee Carsley.

- Ed Aarons

After leading England Under-21s to their first European title in a generation in 2023, the former Everton midfielder finds himself back in the semi-finals tonight having spent almost six months in interim charge of the senior side.

"I was actually thinking about this the other day and how fast things have moved," said Carsley as England prepare to face the Netherlands. "I definitely need a bit of reflection time, but it's been so exciting. It put us backwards a little bit in terms of coming back to the 21s, in terms of the amount of monitoring that we would have been doing with the players, missing out on the three camps, which obviously I've done with the senior team.

"But I wouldn't have changed it. It was such a privilege to do. But again, I feel like I'm in a really good position now as well to potentially take the team into another final, which they fully deserve to be part of."

It is no secret that Carsley feels much more comfortable away from the media spotlight but he seemed at home in the national stadium in Slovakia's capital discussing England's chances of emulating Dave Sexton's sides of 1982 and 1984 by winning successive titles at this level.