Harvey Elliott and James McAtee react to U21 EURO progress

England men’s under-21s’ Harvey Elliott says focus will remain on the prize of retaining the UEFA U21 EURO title this summer, after their quarter-final win over Spain.

The Liverpool forward scored England’s second goal in Trnava en-route to a 3-1 win for Lee Carsley’s side, which sets up a semi-final showdown with the Netherlands on Wednesday.

And Elliott, who was part of the MU21s squad who lifted the title in Georgia two years ago, says the Young Lions won’t be getting too carried away after their latest win.

“It's incredible, I’m lost for words,” he said.

“I said at the start of the game, it's going to be very tough. They're going to play an incredible game against us, but I thought the way the lads handled it, handled the pressure, conceding the goal and being determined to keep on going and keep on fighting, we deserved it so much.

“Now it's time to celebrate, but we need to think about the semis now. Celebrate, recover, rest, go again.

“We just have to take it game by game now. We can't be thinking too far ahead.

“The teams that we're going to play now are incredible. They all deserve to be in the position that they're in. We need to recover; we need to focus on the Netherlands because it's going to be another tough game against a tough team.

“We just need to knock each opponent out the way and hopefully we can defend it [the title], but we need to be focused on the semi-finals now.”

Those sentiments were echoed by Young Lions captain James McAtee, who also scored England's first goal of the game to set the foundation for the victory.

"We're over the moon but the focus is on the semi-final now. We're happy about the win but we need to switch focus now," he added.

"Obviously, we got through [from the group], but we knew things weren't good enough and we had to step things up. I think from the start, seeing that we started on fire, all the boys are happy with that.

"We know they're [Netherlands[ a good team. They are in the semi-final for a reason. We'll have a day off tomorrow and then we'll start preparing."

England head coach Lee Carsley also reflected on the game, after seeing his team execute their plan effectively.

"We talked about getting a fast start and I thought in the first half; we were so good. I was saying before the game, the longer we can stay in it, the more fluid we’ll become. There were some outstanding performances, and they should be proud of themselves.

"We talk about attacking so much that sometimes you forget the other side of the game and I thought the two centre backs, the goalkeeper, all the back four, were outstanding with their defending of the box. The one blemish would be they've given away a penalty, but we responded really well and more than deserved the win.

"I'm saying that the big thing is, this can't be our final. This can't be the highlight of the competition. There are better nights to come. It's good now that we've got an extra day's recovery and we’re looking forward to the next game."