England Under-17s ran out comfortable victors over their Croatian counterparts in Pula on Wednesday evening.
The game, which was the first of the four-nation Croatia Cup, ended with Steve Cooper’s side celebrating a 5-0 win thanks in no small part to a hat-trick from Rhian Brewster.
Croatia 0-5 England U17s
The Croatia Cup
Wednesday 28 September 2016
Stadium Aldo Drosina, Pula
The Young Lions struck four times inside the first half at the Stadium Aldo Drosina, with three of those goals coming before the 20-minute mark.
Manchester City’s Jadon Sancho put England ahead after just ten minutes, before Brewster grabbed his first goal only two minutes later.
Captain Angel Gomes extended the visitors’ advantage on 18 minutes, before Liverpool forward Brewster made it four just after the half-hour.
And Brewster rounded off his hat-trick on 62 minutes, shortly before being replaced by Callum Hudson-Odoi.
The only disappointment for Cooper’s side came in injury time, when George McEachran was shown his second yellow card. The Chelsea midfielder will now miss Friday’s game against Greece.
The majority of Cooper’s squad are new to U17 level, having moved up from the U16s during the summer. The Croatia Cup serves as preparation for the European U17 Championship qualifying, which begins in late October.
England U17s: 1 Curtis Anderson (Manchester City); 21 Kane Wilson (West Bromwich Albion), 5 Joel Latibeaudiere (Manchester City), 6. Jonathan Panzo (Chelsea), 14 Lewis Gibson (Newcastle United); 4 Morgan Gibbs-White (Wolverhampton Wanderers), 8 George McEachran (Chelsea); 7 Phil Foden (Manchester City), 10 Angel Gomes (Manchester United) (c), 11 Jadon Sancho (Manchester City); 18 Rhian Brewster (Liverpool)
Substitutions: 2 Marc Guehi (Chelsea) for Wilson 52, 3 Brooklyn Lyons-Foster (Tottenham Hotspur) for Gibson 52, 20 Alex Denny (Everton) for Gibbs-White 59, 15 Emile Smith-Rowe (Arsenal) for Sancho 68, 19 Callum Hudson-Odoi (Chelsea) for Brewster 68
Substitutes not used: 13 Thomas McGill (GK – Brighton & Hove Albion), 9 Danny Loader (Reading), 12 Marcel Lavinier (Chelsea), 16 Ian Poveda-Campo (Manchester City), 22 Solomon Brynn (GK - Middlesbrough)
