England’s U19 Futsal squad shared an exciting game with Portugal on Tuesday, which ended in a narrow 3-2 defeat.
The Young Lions knew they would be tested against a team who are one of the favourites for the MU19s Euros next season.
And the game saw Portugal dominate possession as expected, given most of their squad play for Sporting Lisbon, a world club Futsal powerhouse.
Portugal scored first through a clever set piece to go into the break a goal up and another great move made it 2-0 early in the second half.
But Scunthorpe United’s Raynner Silva showed some superb individual skill to finish under the Portuguese keeper and reduce the deficit to give England some hope.
Portugal then got another goal on the counter attack as England pressed for an equaliser to make it 3-1 with six minutes to go.
England then used the fly goalkeeper tactic, which resulted in a reply through Liam Hunt after great work by Matt Overton. England put Portugal under pressure as they pushed for an equaliser and saw two efforts cleared off the line.
Despite the final score, it was a huge performance from the Young Lions against the current senior European champions, who have more than 200 caps between them as a team.
“This was a game we picked as a programme to try and test this group against what we know is world class opposition,” said England senior head coach Michael Skubala, who stepped in to manage the U19s in the absence of regular coach Pete Vallance.
“They applied themselves very well but we know tournament Futsal is tough as we play back to back games and today will be harder."
