England's women are through to today's final of the European under-21 championship.

They booked their place against the Netherlands with a penalty shoot-out victory over Germany in France yesterday.

The sides were locked at 2-2 at the end of extra-time before England won 9-8 on penalty strokes.

England's under-21 men's squad will face Germany in the bronze-medal play-off match in Poland.

Their hopes of glory were dashed by a 3-1 defeat to the Netherlands.

Loughborough Students' Laura Bridge was in the women's starting line-up, and her club colleague Amy Turnbull and Leicester's Lauren Turner went on as substitutes.

Germany went 2-0 ahead after 25 minutes but Jess Wood halved the deficit after 30 minutes and struck again eight minutes later.

Assistant coach Andy Bradshaw said: "It's great to reach the final but what is even better is the manner in which the girls took this win.

"To fight back from 2-0 down shows real strength of character."

Loughborough Students' David Beckett struck for the men's team in the 56th minute, following a good drive by club colleague Henry Weir.

But that was only a consolation goal after the Netherlands had taken a 3-0 lead.

Loughborough's Dominic Bowden, David Condon, Richie Dawson-Smith, Marc Edwards Simon Faulkner and Chris Griffiths were also on duty for England.

Team manager Andy Halliday said: "We should have scored first.

"But our finishing, which has been so sharp in this tournament so far, deserted us."