Aidy Boothroyd vows to play ‘very attacking’ England U21 team against Portugal after insipid opening defeat

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Aidy Boothroyd has vowed to get his England Under-21s side on the front foot after an insipid attacking display in their opening game.

England have a mountain to climb after losing 1-0 to Switzerland in their opening game in Slovenia and face the very real threat of not making it out of the group stages for a second consecutive tournament.

Boothroyd started with back three and two players - Callum Hudson-Odoi and Emile Smith Rowe - behind striker Eddie Nketiah up top. The performance was disjointed and England looked to be relying on a moment of individual brilliance to break down the Swiss defence, but none was forthcoming.

With Portugal to come on Sunday and Croatia to round out the group - from which the top two progress - Boothroyd says the side will be far more attacking this weekend.

"We played a safe game today and if you are going to win you can't play safe," said the England coach, whose contract is up this summer. "I felt at half-time we had more from us to come. The substitutes we brought on we had a go but unfortunately if was not our day today.

"We focus quickly on the next game and make sure we get a good result.

"This is the biggest test and we have to go through a bit of adversity to come through the other side. Am I worried about it? No I am not because the team that goes out against Portugal will be a very attacking team and we will see if we can improve."

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