Report: France 3-1 England MU17s

England MU17s suffered late heartbreak in their EURO qualifier with France after conceding twice in the last ten minutes to lose 3-1.

There are 15 places up for grabs to join hosts Israel at the UEFA Under-17 Championship Finals in May, with the eight group winners qualifying and the initial proposal was for the seven best runners-up to also secure a spot at the Finals based on points in the group.

However, Russia’s omission from England’s qualification group means only the matches of the runners-up against the winner and third-placed teams are taken into account across all eight groups to decide the other seven teams who will qualify.

So England will hope for an impressive victory against Luxembourg on Tuesday and that other results will go their way if they are to secure qualification for this summer’s Finals following defeat against France on Saturday afternoon.

The Young Lions went behind on 19 minutes against France in Luxembourg when Aston Villa defender Jayden Barber committed a professional foul on Mathys Tel, leaving the France striker to send Tommy Setford the wrong way from the penalty spot by finding the bottom right-hand corner.

England equalised five minutes before the break though thanks to a half-volley by Arsenal’s Amario Cozier-Duberry.

Young Lions goalkeeper Tommy Setford made saves to deny Sael Kumbedi, Alexis Kabamba and Tom Saettel in the second half, as the fiercely-contested battle in the midfield saw both sides unable to find the breakthrough for much of the game.

However, England suffered a quick-fire double blow when Valentin Atangana Edoa and Naim Byar scored in the 83rd and 86th minutes respectively.

England’s hopes of qualifying for this summer’s EUROs will now be determined by how they perform against Luxembourg on Tuesday night and the results in matches of the other groups.

England: 1 Tommy Setford (Ajax); 2 Jayden Barber (Aston Villa), 6 Joshua Feeney (Aston Villa) ©, 5 Tyler Fredricson (Manchester United); 11 William Alves (Leicester City), 8 Kobbie Mainoo (Manchester United), 18 Archie Gray (Leeds United), 14 Calum Scanlon (Liverpool); 20 Jamie Donley (Tottenham Hotspur), 7 Amario Cozier-Duberry (Arsenal), 10 Nico O’Reilly (Manchester City)

Substitutes: 19 Emre Tezgel (Stoke City) for Donley 62, 17 Leo Castledine (Chelsea) for Alves 62, 16 Tudor Mendel-Idowu (Chelsea) for Gray 86, 4 Rio Kyerematen (Tottenham Hotspur) for O’Reilly 90+2

Substitutes not used: 13 True Grant (Manchester City), 3 Jake Batty (Blackburn Rovers), 9 Dominic Ballard (Southampton FC), 12 Habeeb Ogunneye (Manchester United), 15 Ishé Samuels-Smith (Everton)

Goals: Amario Cozier-Duberry 40

Bookings: Jayden Barber 19, Tommy Setford 19, Kobbie Mainoo 68

Head coach: Tom Curtis