Report: Poland 2-3 England WU17s

England women’s under-17s edged a thrilling encounter with Poland by 3-2 in Rumia, in their second game of UEFA Women's U17 EURO qualifying on Saturday afternoon. 

The Young Lionesses won the first of their three EURO qualifiers against Scotland on Wednesday, before taking on the host nation as the race to reach next summer's EURO Finals in Northern Ireland continued.

And Kerri Welsh's team had to show their character to come from behind with two second-half goals at the Stadion Miejski Rumii, despite taking the lead in the 24th minute through Arsenal forward Bryony Brodie.

The hosts hit back quickly when Liwia Prochwicz levelled things up four minutes later before they took the lead on the stroke of half time when Blanka Zajac made it 2-1 to Poland.

Welsh's side stayed in the game though, and worked their way back into the contest which resulted in an equaliser from Jane Oboavwoduo with 20 minutes left to play.

England weren't finished there either, as ten minutes later Oboavwoduo turned provider to set up Mia Dixon for the winning goal.

"Based on the balance of chances, we absolutley deserved to win the game," said Welsh after the game.

"We didn’t deserve to be down at half time, and probably deserved to be ahead but that’s what happens when you don’t put your chances away. Teams like that will punish you and that’s what they did.

"I asked the group to believe that we could win the game, and that’s what they did. They delivered in the second half, rode the storm at times but that’s football. We are in a strong position going into game three and I couldn’t be prouder of the group and the progress we are making. Now we need to recover and prepare properly for what will be a tough finishing game."

The WU17s will now turn their attention to the final game of this round against Montenegro on Tuesday 14 October (1pm BST kick-off).

England: 1 Erin Walker (Manchester City), 2 Zoe Ciccardini (Chelsea), 3 Katie Scott (Aston Villa) (c), 4 Romia Gagliano (FC Basel), 5 Emilie Gay (Bright & Hove Albion), 6 Isla Law (Bristol City), 7 Mia Dixon (Arsenal), 8 Kyri Teer-Hutchins (Arsenal), 9 Freya Hirons (Manchester City), 10 Bryony Brodie (Arsenal), 11 Jane Oboavwoduo (Manchester City)

Substitutes: 17 Cairo Antoine (Arsenal) for Brodie 46, 20 Ella Carr (Austin Sting Soccer) for Hirons 61, 18 Sophia Burton (Manchester City) for Teer-Hutchins 77,

Substitutes not used: 13 Evie Mitchell (Manchester United), 12 Lottie Day (Sheffield United), 14 Annabelle Tang (Arsenal), 15 Sadie Gregory (Chelsea)
16 Isabella Cowley (Arsenal), 19 Chelsea N’Drin (Liverpool)

Goals: Brodie 24’, Oboavwoduo 70’, Dixon 80’

Head coach: Kerri Welsh