Young Lions Duncan Watmore and Nathaniel Chalobah felt U21s unlucky to lose in France

England Under-21s pair Duncan Watmore and Nathaniel Chalobah say they can only learn from the harsh lesson of defeat against France as they eye up next summer’s Euros.

The Young Lions saw their 15-game unbeaten record brought to a cruel end in Bondoufle, as a late free-kick from Wylan Cyprien condemned them to a 3-2 reverse.

Watmore had put England ahead with a stunning first-half goal before a Moussa Dembele double put Les Bleus in front, only for Lewis Baker to seemingly rescue a draw with a late free-kick before Cyprien restored France’s lead moments later.

And the Sunderland man admits Aidy Boothroyd’s team felt unfortunate to finish the year with a defeat.

“I don’t know [how we lost] to be honest, I think we were unlucky,” said Watmore.

“I thought we were good in a lot of the game and it was the just quality of the goals with some good free-kicks, so we were disappointed to lose.

“But I enjoyed it [his goal], I saw the guy off his line and just thought why not try it? And it came off.”

Chalobah, who captained the team in what was his 35th game for the U21s, went along with that assessment and also felt the decision to award a free-kick against England for Dembele’s first goal.

“It was hard, but at the end of the day, we’re away from home and we felt the decisions were harsh but we’ve got to defend them,” said the Chelsea midfielder.

“That was point of playing these games, we could play friendly games against weaker opposition where we dominate for most of the game, but playing against two top countries in Italy and France has been a good test and a good challenge for us.

“I think we’ll definitely look back at these two games and take what we can from them.”

With Boothroyd taking charge of the squad for an initial four-game stint, Watmore also gave the former England U19s and U20s head coach his own backing after three wins prior to the trip to France.

“He’s been great and the lads have really taken to him,” he revealed.

“It was a shame we couldn’t get two wins out of two from this trip but other than that, we did really well against Italy.

“It would’ve been nice to win here too, but we’ve enjoyed working with Aidy and whatever happens from here is out of our control.”