The next generation of England footballers last night suffered a fate their seniors are all too familiar with when they lost the final of the Under-17 European Championship to Spain on penalties.
England were leading six minutes into injury time when Nacho Díaz headed past Josef Bursik to make it 2-2 at the end of their 80-minute match. The game went straight into a penalty shootout, with England’s heads clearly scrambled, having been seconds away from winning the tournament in Croatia.
In the shootout, with Uefa trialling a system similar to the tie-break in tennis, with one team taking a penalty, and thereafter everyone taking two in a row, Aidan Barlow tucked the first penalty away but he was the only England player to convert as Rhian Brewster and Joel Latibeaudiere missed. Spain’s Victor Chust scored the final penalty to make it 4-1.
England had taken the lead after 18 minutes through Callum Hudson-Odoi although Mateu Morey equalised before half-time in a game with five yellow cards. Phil Foden put England back in front after 58 minutes with Steve Cooper’s men then trying to hold on for a third Under-17 tournament win in eight years, before Díaz struck deep into stoppage time.
“We should be proud,” said Cooper. “We’ve had a fantastic tournament and a fantastic season, which I’ve said to the players. My emotion is pride and although it doesn’t feel it now this experience will be a good one when we get over it and we can do a little bit better in future tournaments.”
