England fight back to win World Cup
MANCHESTER City starlet Phil Foden scored twice as England came from behind to crush Spain 5-2 in the Under-17 World Cup final on Saturday.
Victory added to England’s growing list of youth honours – they have won the Under-20 World Cup and European Under-19 Championship this year – and was revenge for losing the Under-17 European Championship final to Spain in May.
In contrast, the senior England men’s side have not lifted a major international trophy since they won the World Cup in 1966.
On top of Foden’s second-half brace, Liverpool’s Rhian Brewster scored his seventh goal of the tournament and Morgan Gibbs-White and Marc Guehi also pierced the normally solid Spanish defence at the Salt Lake stadium in Kolkata.
Gibbs-White’s low shot in the first minute of a fierce-paced final in front of 66,600 fans produced a lightning reflex save from Alvaro Fernandez in the Spanish goal.
But Spain captain Abel Ruiz masterminded the first goal in the 10th minute, heading the ball down in the goal area for Barcelona teammate Sergio Gomez to push the ball in the net.
On 31 minutes Ruiz again opened the England defence and laid the ball on for Cesar Gelabert who found Gomez on the other side of the area waiting to rocket a shot past goalkeeper Curtis Anderson.
England fought hard to get back into the game. Callum Hudson-Odoi fired a right-foot shot onto the post with Fernandez beaten.
The pressure paid off in the 44th minute when Steven Sessegnon crossed from the right and an unmarked Brewster headed past Fer- nandez. With the final action of the half, Brewster sent a 22-metre freekick at the goal, which Fernandez just tipped over the bar.
The second half resumed at a furious pace with England pushing hard for an equaliser. The breakthrough came in the 58th minute when Foden took the ball into the Spanish penalty area and laid it on to Sessegnon who found Gibbs-White with plenty of space to fire the ball past Fernandez.
Hudson-Odoi set up the crucial third goal in the 69th minute, crossing from the left after beating two Spanish defenders and Foden shot in unmarked.
Guehi chested the ball in amid a goalmouth scramble to seal victory and set up a niggly finale in which Brewster was booked.
Earlier, Brazil beat Mali 2-0 in the third-place playoff to earn a consolation after they lost to England in the semifinals.
Alan scored in the 55th minute when Mali goalkeeper Youssouf Koita fumbled the Palmeiras striker’s shot, which went past him into the net. Substitute Yuri Alberto scored the second in the 88th minute. With the Mali defence tiring, Brenner crossed from the right and Alberto was unmarked to fire in from close range.
Wenger hails youth policy
After England’s victory, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger insisted the U17 World Cup final triumph was further proof of the increasing success of his adopted country’s once much derided youth system.
For decades the technical development of young players in England has been compared unfavourably with that of their counterparts in rival European nations such as Spain, France, Germany and Holland.
But veteran French manager Wenger, in charge of the Gunners since 1996, was delighted by England’s recent youth results and even talked of “we” following Saturday’s latest success.
“I’m so happy because I’ve been here for 20 years and for 20 years we didn’t do so well with the youth,” Wenger said after Arsenal won his 800th game as a Premier League manager with a 2-1 victory at home to Swansea on Saturday.
“Now we have won the Under17 [ World Cup] and the Under-20 for the first time since I’m here [in England]. It shows that since they restructured the [youth] academies and dedicated a lot of work to that, you have the results.”
Saturday’s success came at the end of a bruising week for the Football Association, with Chairman Greg Clarke admitting English football’s governing body had “lost the trust of the public” for its botched handling of racism allegations involving the former manager of the women’s national team.
Victory in India was a welcome piece of good news for the underpressure Clarke and his beleaguered colleagues.
“For once we can all have the opportunity to congratulate the FA,” Wenger said. “It doesn’t happen often!” he jokingly added.