England go down to teenager’s late goal
England’s preparation for the European championship in Germany later this summer, suffered a setback as Brazil’s wonderkid, Endrick — on as substitute in the 71st minute — hit the only goal of the friendly match for his side to emerge victorious.
England manager, Gareth Southgate, somewhat hid his disappointment and said: “I don’t like losing but there were lots of very good individual performances from players who have hardly played for England. In the end it was that ruthless moment that decided it. We controlled long parts of the game and had as many attempts as they did, so I’m not unhappy.”
Asked about the absence, through injury, of his main striker, Harry Kane who plays for Bayern Munich and was at the match, Southgate said: “He will go back, he won’t be fit for Tuesday (against Belgium). But I was really pleased with the players who came in. We need to find out about them. We need to know where we might head if we don’t have Harry for a big match.”
Regarding debutant, Anthony Gordan and substitutes Ezri Konsa and Kobbie Mainoo who came on in the 20th and 75th minute respectively, Southgate said: “Anthony was very good. Both sides of his game looked very accomplished.
For Ezri to come in at the moment he did and to deal with players of that quality, I thought he was also excellent, showed real composure and he should be really happy with his debut. We were really pleased with him. To get Kobbie on the pitch was also clearly a brilliant moment for him and his family.”
Despite the long spell without a goal the game was pacy at times and the myriad missed chances by both sides, particularly by Brazil, kept the game in focus throughout. The visitors could have scored as early as the 12th minute but Kyle Walker who later went off injured in 20th minute, ran back to clear a weak shot from Vinicius Jr off the line and his team-mate Lucas Paqueta hit the left post in the 35th minute.
After the break he curled a fine effort just wide and Raphinha missed the best chance putting his shot wide from 10 yards after seizing onto a mistake by Harry Maguire in a close tussle. For England, Ollie Watkins missed the best chance from close range after Conor Gallagher had lifted the ball through to him.
Brazil played some fine football. They combined well in midfield, exchanging short passes which were accurate while some England passes were either intercepted or just that bit out of reach.
On their performance they fittingly went ahead finally in the 80th minute. It came about after a poor header from substitute Lewis Dunk went straight to Andreas Perera. His pass then beat John Stones and was picked up by Vinicius whose shot rebounded of goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and fell in the path of the 17-year-old Endrick to guide the ball into the net to become the youngest scorer against England at Wembley and the youngest for Brazil since Ronaldo (17y 229d) in 1994.