Alfie Mawson: Germany deserved to reach U21s Euros final, England will learn from this

Alfie Mawson insists Germany were deserving winners after England Under-21s were knocked out of the European Championships semi-final on penalties.

Nathan Redmond saw his crucial effort from 12 yards saved as the Germans reached the final in Tychy, Poland, after 120 minutes and seven spotkicks.

Davie Selke had earlier given Germany the lead before Demarai Gray and Tammy Abraham put the Young Lions ahead. Felix Platte forced a goalless extra time.

"There are a lot of down heads in there," Mawson told Sky Sports. "A lot of people are genuinely gutted, which I think shows what this meant to us.

"It's one of those things you've got to man up and deal with. I think tonight they were the better team and I think we did brilliantly well to hang in there.

"They should have had a few more goals but credit to us, we kept going and penalty shoot-outs are pot luck. But fair play to them, let's see how they get on in the final."

Abraham also saw his penalty saved as England suffered a familiar fate against the Germans.

Mawson added of the Chelsea forward and Redmond: "They are gutted and you can understand why. But without them we probably wouldn't even be in the tournament.

"They've got to hold their heads high, they've been fantastic throughout. We'll learn from this."