England's Under 17's were denied victory against Portugal in the annual Algarve Tournament after Kaziah Sterling's first goal for his country was controversially cancelled out.
With crucial qualifiers for this summer’s European Championships coming up next month the Algarve Tournament poses a great test for the young lions who would be defending their European title should they make it to Bulgaria in May.
The Algarve tournament involves three other teams - Holland, Portugal and Germany – opponents England coach John Peacock describes as “the best in Europe.”
He said of the tournament, “I think it is great to test ourselves against the best. It will be a good yardstick to see how we are as a team at the moment. We’ll be able to see what we are doing well and find out things that we need to improve and we are all looking forward to it.”
However, England didn't get off to the best of starts, losing quite dramatically to Holland in their opening game, who they so famously defeated on penalties in that dramatic final in Malta last year. The crushing 7-0 scoreline served as a wake-up call for Peacocks young guns who went 4 behind inside 18 minutes.
Luckily there was no nightmare start to be had today against the hosts Portugal, with England starting brightly and nearly opening the scoring on 12 minutes, after Andre Green beat the full-back and set up Kaziah Sterling who’s sliding effort went just wide.
It took until the 25th minute for Portugal to register an attempt on goal but a Jose Gomes strike was easily saved by England goalkeeper Will Huffer.
The deadlock was broken a minute later when England were awarded a free kick that was parried away by the keeper towards Green who reacted the quickest, heading it back across goal for Sterling to nod in from close range.
Despite surviving a late flurry of Portuguese chances that saw Huffer make a fine save to deny Toni Gomes and a strike that hit the post, England looked comfortable heading in to the break.
Peacock made a few changes at half time with Easah Suliman and Foday Nabay coming on for Cameron Humphreys and Connor Ronan, but it was a triple substitution for Portugal that really made the difference with England coming under fire early in the second half.
It was only a fantastic block by James Yates five yards out to deny Toni Gomes a certain goal that kept the score at 1-0.
However, England struggled to soak up the never-ending pressure and Portugal finally got their breakthrough after 55 minutes albeit in the strangest of fashions.
Having collected a stray pass, keeper Huffer was standing on the edge of his area preparing to kick up field when the referee blew the whistle to halt play. He awarded an indirect free-kick believing Huffer had taken more than six seconds to release the ball.
From the resulting set-piece, a shot was drilled goalwards which Huffer dealt with well, but substitute Vieira reacted quickest to the rebound, netting from close range.
Despite enjoying more of the ball, Portugal struggled to find a winner, but when their chances did come, Huffer was on hand to save expertly from Jose Gomes, first with his legs and then from 8 yards out after Suliman lost his man and allowed the Portugal striker clean through on goal.
With both teams deserving their fair share of the points it was apt the game finished one apiece. A decent performance for England will serve to erase some of those memories from earlier in the week, and give them confidence ahead of their final game of the tournament against Germany on Tuesday.
After the Algarve, thoughts will turn in earnest to the crucial trio of Euro qualifiers that kick-off against Norway at Burton Albion’s Pirelli Stadium on the 21st March, swiftly followed by games against Slovenia and Romania on the 23rd and 26th.
Portugal:
12 Flipe Dinis
3 Bruno Paz
5 Ricardo Mangas (4 Goncalo Vieria 40’)
13 Pedro Pereira (14 Nuno Goncalves 73’)
15 Jorge Pereira
17 Abdu Conte
10 Moreto Cassama (c) (6 Pedro Ferreira 40’)
20 Bruno Lourenco (2 Joao Simoes 73’)
7 Generoso (11 Jose Gomes 67’)
19 Toni Gomes
9 Rui Pedro (16 Idrisa Sambu 40’)
England:
1 William Huffer
2 James Yates
5 Cameron Humphreys (16 Easah Suliman 40’)
6 Danny Collinge (c)
3 Tayo Edun
20 Will Patching
14 Andre Green (21 Callum Gribbin 62’)
17 Connor Ronan (4 Foday Nabay 40’)
10 Marcus Edwards (8 Daniel Wright 62’)
9 Lukas Nmecha (22 Jahmal Hector 70’)
19 Kazaiah Sterling (11 Layton Ndukwu 73’)
Source: DSG
