Report: England MU17s 1-1 Australia

England men’s under-17s brought their trip to Dubai to a close with a 1-1 draw against Australia at the Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium on Tuesday afternoon.

Following on from a 5-2 win over USA in their opening game and then a 1-1 draw against Cote d’Ivoire, Liam Bramley’s Young Lions came from behind in their final match of 2025.

The Joeys opened the scoring midway through the first half, when they won possession high up the pitch and Max Court was played through on goal, making no mistake with a smart finish past goalkeeper Roman Dowell.

But as dusk began to settle in the Arabian desert sky, England fought their way back and brought the scores level less than ten minutes after the restart. The goal came when Jacob Howard got on the end of Mathis Eboue’s free-kick from the left to power home a firm header.

It was the Young Lions who went on to enjoy the better of the chances after that in search of a winner. In particular, Howard’s marauding run from defence to the edge of the Australian box almost led to Kyran Thompson being released into space.

And Thompson himself also had an opportunity to win it in the final seconds following an attack down the right, only for a last-ditch block to deny him as he was lining up a shot in the area.

England: 13 Roman Dowell (Newcastle United), 2 Jacob Wain (Manchester City), 4 Fraser Widdop (Brighton & Hove Albion), 6 Oliver Wilkinson (Ipswich Town), 9 Brian Madjo (Metz) (c), 10 Max Little (Southampton), 11 Mathis Eboue (Chelsea), 12 Oscar Sandiford (Tottenham Hotspur), 14 Joél Drakes-Thomas (Crystal Palace), 15 Floyd Samba (Manchester City), 20 Jacob Howard (Leeds United)

Substitutes: 17 Jerome Abbey (Wolverhampton Wanderers) for Widdop, 19 Teddie Lamb (Manchester City) for Wilkinson, 8 Hugo De Lisle (Leicester City) for Samba, 16 Calvin Diakite (Chelsea) for Madjo, 7 Kyran Thompson (Arsenal) for Drakes-Thomas, 5 Harley Emsden-James (Manchester United) for Howard

Substitutes not used: 1 Ben Vickery (Manchester City), 3 Liam Balmer (Liverpool), 22 Tommy Betts (Sheffield United), 18 Erik Farkas (Liverpool), 21 Lyndon Snelgrove (Millwall), 23 Aiden Yeguo (Liverpool)

Head coach: Liam Bramley

Goal: Jacob Howard 53