Liverpool’s Rhian Brewster scored a hat-trick as England beat the USA 4-1 in Goa to secure their first place in the U17 World Cup semi-finals.
England were 2-0 up inside quarter of an hour after Brewster scored twice in three minutes, and dominated the first half. Wolves’ Morgan Gibbs-White added a third on 64 minutes, before Josh Sargent pulled one back for the USA – but Brewster made sure with a penalty in added time.
England face a semi-final on Wednesday against the winners of Sunday’s Germany versus Brazil quarter-final, with the manager, Steve Cooper, confident they will be ready for either side. “We’ve played both in the last 12 months,” he said. “They are two really good teams – but whoever comes through, we will be prepared for them.”
Cooper said England would “stick to our plan: one step at a time. We’ve already created a little bit of a history back in England, but we will just recover tomorrow and stick to our processes.”
His team’s performance extends a brilliant run for England’s development teams in recent months, following the U20 World Cup victory and the Under-19s’ European Championship win.
