Last minute own goal condemns England to Euro heartbreak

England suffered last-minute heartbreak against Ukraine as a late own-goal gave the visitors a 1-0 victory at Burton and eliminated Noel Blake's men from the European Championship.

Following wins in each of their previous Elite Round group games, the Young Lions went into the afternoon fixture knowing either a win or a draw would be enough to book their place in Hungary.

Despite dominating for much of the match, England were unable to find the breakthrough and with Ukraine piling everybody forward an injury time deflection off captain Calum Chambers gave the visitors the three points they needed to top the group and qualify for the Finals in July.

Heading into their third game in five days, manager Noel Blake made four changes to the side that beat Scotland 2-1 on Monday. John Swift returned to the centre of midfield, while Devante Cole got his first action of the Elite Round and started on the left of a front three for England.

Callum Robinson, who has impressed coming off the bench in each of the two previous outings got his chance alongside Cole and Chuba Akpom – while Chelsea’s FA Youth Cup winning captain Ruben Loftus-Cheek got his first start of the Elite Round alongside club team-mates Swift and Lewis Baker in the midfield.

The first half was a tight affair. With both sides knowing a victory would be enough to see them through to the Euro 2014 Finals, the opening exchanges were all about staying in the game.

England did, however, begin the more attacking of the two. Robinson – starting for the first time at U19s level – fired inches over with a curling right-foot shot within a minute of the start.

The Aston Villa youngster – who had scored three times in his four appearances for the U19s to date – was pulling the strings throughout the opening minutes and turned creator moments later as he crossed from the right - but there was nobody in the middle to meet Cole’s lay-off.

The Young Lions continued on the front foot as the game progressed, with Ukraine offering little in the way of attacking impetus.

Viktor Kovalenko and Viacheslav Tankovski were a threat on the counter-attack, but Christian Walton in the England goal was rarely troubled and neither side was able to break the deadlock before the half-way point.

England 'keeper Christian Walton gathers the ball during against Ukraine

The Brighton & Hove Albion youngster was, however, called into action early in the second half.  As the second period got under way Walton and Lloyd Jones combined to keep Yaremchuk’s out with a fantastic double stop.

Walton firstly saved Yaremchuk’s header – spectacularly clawing back off the line when the striker looked odds-on score. The rebound fell to Yaremchuk – he took a touch which allowed Jones to get back on the line and block the follow up before England cleared their lines.

Relatively comfortable until then, it seemed to be a wakeup call for Blake’s young side and they regained their composure – Ola Aina went close, Akpom chose to dribble when he may have shot and Baker twice fired on target, but into the arms of substitute goalkeeper Bogdan Sarnavskyi – who had replaced the injured Roman Pidkivka.

But following the injury to the Ukraine goalkeeper, the assistant referee signaled there would be seven minutes of added time. It seemed to give the visitors a degree of belief and with the game entering the dying stages substitute Artem Biesiedin found himself in space on the right and despite Walton saving his shot well it bounced off the goalkeeper and into the helpless Chambers.

There was enough time for England to mount one more attack and Baker struck a post from a free-kick. It just was not to be England’s day and as the sharp shrill of the referee’s whistle signaled the end of the road for this group of U19s , the players fell to the floor  - heartbroken – as wild celebrations began around them.

England (4-3-3)

1 Christian Walton (Brighton & Hove Albion); 15 Ola Aina (Chelsea), 2 Calum Chambers (Southampton), 5 Lloyd Jones (Liverpool), 3 Matthew Targett (Southampton); 8 John Swift (Chelsea), 4 Lewis Baker (Chelsea), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea); 18 Callum Robinson (Aston Villa), 9 Chuba Akpom (Arsenal), 12 Devante Cole (Manchester City).

Substitutes

16 Brendan Galloway (MK Dons) for Targett, 56; 10 Sam Gallagher (Southampton) for Cole, 80; 17 Harrison Reed (Southampton) for Loftus-Cheek, 85.

Substitutes not used

6 Shay Facey (Manchester City),  7 Jordon Ibe (Liverpool), , 11 Joshua Murphy (Norwich City), 13 Cameron Dawson (Sheffield Wednesday).

Bookings: Baker (72).

Manager: Noel Blake

Ukraine (4-2-3-1)

1 Roman Pidkivka (12 Bogdan Samavskyi, 68); 16 Andriy Markovych, 2 Taras Kacharaba, 5 Yurii Tkachuk, 18 Eduard Sobol; 6 Viacheslav Tankovski, 19 Ihor Kharatin; 4 Pavlo Polehenko, 17 Viktor Kovalenko, 14 Maksym Benasevych (9 Artem Radchenko, 46); 11 Roman Yaremchuk (15 Artem Biesiedin, 60)

Substitutes not used

3 Pavlo Luklanchuk, 7 Yevhen Chumak, 8 Artem Habelok, , 10 Dmytro Bilinoh.

Goals: Chambers OG (90)

Bookings: Sobol (57).

Manager: Oleksandr Petrakov.

Referee:

Manzano Gil (Spain)

Attendance:

735