Chelsea Academy player Leo Castledine was the hero for England Under-18s with a late winner on an evening of international matches for Young Lions teams.
The 17-year-old, who netted twice for Chelsea in a UEFA Youth League game in Zagreb recently (pictured top), came on for England for the last 20 minutes against the Netherlands in a match held in Spain. With added time being played at the end, he applied the finishing touch to a centre for a 1-0 win.
Samuel Rak-Sakyi, another Chelsea representative, remained on the bench. England U18s next play the Faroe Islands at the same venue.
Later in the day, England U19s beat Montenegro in a qualification game for the next European Championships, the tournament that age group won in the summer. Lewis Hall, fresh from scoring for our development squad at the weekend, was the Chelsea representative in that game and played the full match.
It ended 2-0 with the goals in a deserved win coming in the second half from Liverpool’s Luke Chambers and Leeds’ Sonny Perkins. They next play Georgia on Saturday.
Most of the players who won the U19s Euros have moved up to England U20s and they won 3-0 in the same stadium in Spain as the Under-18s earlier on.
Chile were the defeated side with Carney Chukwuemeka captaining the Young Lions. He went close with a second-half shot, by which stage his side were 2-0 up with Man City striker Liam Delap and Brentford’s Daniel Oyegoke on target. Harvey Vale came on with an hour played, with Sam Edozie from Southampton completing the goalscoring.
The next opportunity for Chukwuemeka, Vale and their colleagues is on Saturday against Morocco.