Morgan Rogers scored to help England earn their first Nations League victory of the new term with a 2-0 win against Czechia, while Chelsea striker Shim Mheuka was on target as our young Blues had a productive day in international action.
Rogers featured in Thomas Tuchel‘s starting XI at the Fortuna Arena in Prague and was involved in the build-up to Harry Kane’s goal in the second-half, after Anthony Gordon had netted the opener.
Our forward midfielder nearly got us in front himself 15 minutes into the game, when he cut inside the penalty area and curled a shot against the far post. The shots from Elliot Anderson and Bukayo Saka following were then blocked.
Vlašek then saw red for a foul on Anderson under the eyes of the monitoring screens, meaning the Czech team was down to 10 men – but England had to wait for the second half before eventually scoring.
Gordon was then beaten by a shot from Trent Alexander-Arnold which flew in off the post after the restart before Rogers made it 2-0 for England on 69 minutes. His cut-back in the box fell to Kane whose shot went in low at the near post.
Earlier in the day, Mheuka Roma scored a sensational goal to get England Under-20s off the mark in a 2-1 win against France in Spain, which also saw Jesse Derry in the Blue shirts.
The visitor’s striker was on target after just nine minutes. Collecting goalkeeper Oliver Whatmuff’s long throw on the edge of the France half, the on-loan Celtic man dominated the ball on his chest before surging forward and beating Mathys Niflore from outside the box.
Mikey Moore then doubled England’s lead five minutes later before fellow Blue out on loan, Derry, who is spending the season at Sporting CP, came on for Shea Lacey in the 59th minute.
Mheuka was replaced after 74 minutes and Prosper Peter gave France a consolation but England maintained their advantage to record their second successive U20 Euro Elite League win. England now face Germany on Saturday.
Leave a Reply