Report: Finland 2-1 England WU17s

England women’s under-17s ended their trip to Finland with a narrow 2-1 defeat in Vaasa on Sunday afternoon.

Kerri Welsh’s Young Lionesses have been in Scandinavia for two fixtures against this season’s UEFA Women’s U17 EURO hosts, with the first game ending in a 2-2 draw last Thursday.

But they couldn’t match that scoreline and missed out on a result, despite mounting piles of pressure and testing their hosts' resilience in the later stages of the game.

On a bright afternoon, the opening stages of the game were relatively equal with both teams probing and testing the water, but without creating any real chances of note.

Finland looked as though set-pieces might be their key attacking strength though, particularly from corners.

And they caught England out to open the scoring when they played a short corner in the 34th minute out to Venla Pastinen on the edge of the area. She then struck an unstoppable shot from 20 yards past Billie Price to put the hosts ahead.

England bounced back though and found an equaliser with the last kick of the first half. Aysia Matabaro’s run and cross was blocked from the right, but when the ball bounced back to the Chelsea forward, she managed to turn and fire a shot at goal.

It crashed back off the angle of post and bar and bounced into the area, where Ayomide Junaid was waiting to finish from close range and send the teams in level at the break.

England emerged for the second half with Welsh having made five changes to the team, but they found themselves behind again within four minutes of the restart.

Unfortunately it was a self-inflicted goal too, as the Young Lionesses looked to play their way out from a goal-kick only to be caught out on the edge of the box by an aggressive press from Finland, to leave Riina Huikuri with the chance to tuck home from close range.

It took an almighty save from the Finland goalkeeper to deny Mia Dixon less than five minutes later, after the substitute had spun her marker gracefully on the edge of the box before firing a low shot at goal. It looked as though it might creep in, only for the ‘keeper to scramble it to safety on the line.

Billie Price proved equally heroic at the other end, as she made a fine save to deny Finland a third, when they’d broke clear after winning possession on the half way line.

It was England who ended the game on the front foot though, as they pushed to find an equaliser which they would’ve deserved on reflection of the game only to find a Finnish defence who remained solid under pressure to seal the win.

England: 13 Billie Price (Brighton & Hove Albion), 3 Zoe Ciccardini (Chelsea), 4 Izzie Breen (Liverpool) (c), 6 Ama Nwankwo (Manchester City), 9 Ayomide Junaid (Benfica Residential Academy), 10 Stevie Sinclair (Chelsea), 11 Aysia Matabaro (Chelsea), 15 Annie-Joy Boichat (Chelsea), 16 Betty Fisher (Chelsea), 21 Amie Bush (Tottenham Hotspur), 24 Jahmya Putman (Chelsea)

Substitutes: 20 Chidimma Nwokedi (Chelsea) for Putman 46, 22 Hannah Kirk (Leicester City) for Price 46, 5 Sophie Leach (Chelsea) for Boichat 46, 7 Mia Dixon (Arsenal) for Sinclair 46, 2 Ella-Rose Boothe (Chelsea) for Nwankwo 63, 14 Naile Yemeru (Manchester City) for Breen 63, 12 Neeve McDonald (Bristol City) for Bush 64, 18 Isabella Eborall (Aston Villa) for Fisher 64, 19 Macy Bangura (Manchester City) for Matabaro 76

Substitutes not used: 1 Victoria Rudz (Chelsea), 8 Maria Mayers (Chelsea), 17 Angelina Joy Bramble (Arsenal), 23 Isabelle Ranger (Brighton & Hove Albion)

Head coach: Kerri Welsh