England U19s held to draw by Dutch but seal shoot-out win

New England Under-19s boss Keith Downing admitted to being pleasantly surprised by the talent at his disposal as he oversaw a penalty shoot-out victory over the Netherlands.

The Young Lions took the lead on the stroke of half time in Telford through Everton midfielder and captain Tom Davies, but were pegged back by Justin Hoogma in the 84th minute.

A shoot-out practice followed after 90 minutes, with England triumphing when Easah Suliman converted the decisive spot-kick.

And Downing said: "The result is not as important to me as the performance of the players, individually and as a team. 

"The Netherlands are real quality opposition and provided us with a real challenge. I am delighted with how the players performed, they stuck to their task and showed real quality.

"It’s a work in progress, a new group of players so there is quite a lot of work to be done, but we saw that we are on the right road. 

"We are geared to making it to the UEFA Euro Finals in Georgia next summer but also helping develop players individually.

U19s pair Cameron Humphries and Adetayo Edun challenge Dutch striker Mitchell van Rooijen

"And we are still at the stage where we are finding out about the players as they have come from their clubs and we are discovering what they are like as players, personalities, characters. 

"I think we saw that this England U19 team are a particularly talented lot." 

England edged a first half of few chances taking the lead on the stroke of half-time when Jay DaSilva’s cross from the left was headed firmly home by Davies.

The home side continued to dominate in the second period and it took a superb save at full-stretch from keeper Justin Bijlow to keep out a 20-yard free-kick from Davies who proved England’s stand-out performer.

As the second half progressed, Bijlow also had to be on his toes to deny Trent Alexander-Arnold and substitute Antony Evans as England’s slick and fluid passing movements had the visitors at full-stretch.

But an inventive Dutch side soon began to assert themselves and substitute keeper Aynsley Pears did well to save a deft header from Kaj Sierhuis. 

And the Dutch were not to be denied as they equalised six minutes from time when Hoogma bundled home from a corner after good work from Mitchell Van Roojen.

England were not to be outdone though, securing their shoot-out victory courtesy of Suliman's spot-kick.

England and Chelsea forward Jacob Maddox controls the ball against the Dutch

Downing’s team are back in action against Belgium in Brussels on Sunday, and the head coach admits he intends to use the full depth of his squad.

He added: "We learned a lot. It was a good game, a good challenge and for a first time together I felt we did more than okay.

"Now we move on to the Belgium game. We will be making changes as we want to give every player a chance to show what he can do."

England Under-19s (4-4-2): 1 Will Mannion (Hull City); 2 Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), 3 Jay DaSilva (Chelsea), 4 Tom Davies (Everton) (c), 5 Cameron Humphreys (Manchester City); 6 Easah Suliman (Cheltenham, loan from Aston Villa), 7 Nathan Holland (Everton), 8 Adetayo Edun (Fulham), 11 Chris Willock (Arsenal); 9 Lukas Nmecha (Manchester City), 10 Jacob Maddox (Chelsea)

Substitutes: 13 Aynsley Pears (Middlesbrough) for Mannion 46, 15 Trevoh Chalobah (Chelsea) for Maddox 61, 17 Sam Field (West Bromwich Albion) for DaSilva 61, 21 Antony Evans (Everton) for Davies 61, 19 Andre Green (Aston Villa) for Nmecha 80, 12 Dujon Sterling (Chelsea) for Edun 80, 18 Isaac Buckley-Ricketts (Manchester City) for Willock 80, 20 Rushian Hepburn-Murphy (Aston Villa) for Holland 80

Substitutes not used: 12 Dujon Sterling (Chelsea), 14 Darnell Johnson (Leicester City), 16 Hayden Coulson (Middlesbrough), 22 Aaron Ramsdale (Sheffield United)

Head coach: Keith Downing

Goals: Tom Davies 45

Netherlands (3-5-2): 1 Justin Bijlow; 2 Sherel Floranus, 3 Daniljo Doekhi, 4 Justin Hoogma;  5 Owen Wijndal, 6 Rodney Kongolo, 17 Mitchell Van Rooijen, 8 Mees Hoedemakers, 11 Javairo Dilrosun; 9 Kaj Sierhuis, 10 Odysseus Velanas

Substitutes: 12 Matthijs De Ligt for Doekhi 68, 22 Dani De Wit for Kongolo 68, 19 Jelle Duin for Dilrosun 80, 22 Dani De Wit for Sierhuis 80, 20 Teun Bijlveld for Van Rooijen 87 

Substitutes not used: 7 Mitchell Van Bergen, 14 Rick Van Drongelen, 15 Jurich Carolina, 16 Maatren Paes, 18 Teun Koopmeiners, 21 Tahith Chong

Head coach: Maarten Stekelenburg

Goals: Justin Hoogma 84

Yellow cards: Justin Hoogma 25, Tahith Chong 90