England U19s fell to a 3-1 defeat to Germany U19s in Mansfield.
Paul Simpson’s side were given a mountain to climb with barely three minutes on the clock at the One Call Stadium as quick-fire goals from Adrian Fein and Benjamin Goller got the visitors off to a perfect start.
Arsenal’s Reiss Nelson hit back for the Young Lions in the first half but that proved to be the only cheer for the defending European champions in Nottinghamshire, with Kai Havertz wrapping up the result for Germany deep into injury time.
England had been in buoyant mood following a 7-1 victory over Poland U19s at St. George’s Park days earlier.
However, the 3,566 crowd had barely taken to their seats when Fein fired the visitors into an early lead with a low finish from just inside the area in the second minute. It got even worse barely 60 seconds later as the Germans started in blistering fashion, as Alfons Amade’s charge down the right ended with a ball inside for Goller who blasted beyond Ryan Schofield.
The Young Lions took the sting out of that painful start from the Germans in the 11th minute, as local boy Ben Brereton laid it on to a plate for Nelson, in acres of space, to slot past Jan-Christoph Bartels from 12 yards out.
From that point the first half evened itself out with chances at both ends, captain Mason Mount and Flynn Downes both went close with respective free-kicks from either side of the D while Goller rattled the framework of Schofield’s goal.
The start to second-half proceedings wasn’t quite as frantic and an enforced break due to a failed floodlight around the 65th minute only further hampered the flow of the game.
That delay resulted in 11 additional minutes and it was at the very end of that extended period when Germany bagged their third, with Havertz cutting in from the right to fire an effort beyond Schofield’s out-stretched arm and into the bottom left corner.
England: 1 Ryan Schofield (Huddersfield Town); 2 Dujon Sterling (Chelsea), 3 Josh Tymon (Stoke City), 4 Marcus McGuane (Arsenal), 5 Edward Francis (Manchester City), 6 Jaden Brown (Tottenham Hotspur), 7 Jonathan Leko (Bristol City on loan from West Bromwich Albion), 8 Flynn Downes (Ipswich Town), 9 Ben Brereton (Nottingham Forest), 10 Mason Mount (Vitesse Arnhem on loan from Chelsea), 11 Reiss Nelson (Arsenal)
Substitutions: 12 George Hirst (Sheffield Wednesday) for Brereton 59, 16 Japhet Tanganga (Tottenham Hotspur) for Francis 59, 22 Tariq Uwakwe (Chelsea) for Downes 59, 14 Edward Nketiah (Arsenal) for Leko 76, 20 Joe Willock (Arsenal) for McGuane 76, 17 Elliot Embleton (Sunderland) for Nelson 90+3
Substitutes not used: 13 Jake Turner (Bolton Wanderers), 15 Daniel Kemp (West Ham United), 18 Reece James (Chelsea), 19 Keanan Bennetts (Tottenham Hotspur), 21 Ellery Balcombe (Brentford)
Goals: England: Reiss Nelson (11). Germany: Adrian Fein (2), Benjamin Goller (3), Kai Havertz (90+11)
Head coach: Paul Simpson
