SAM CUNNINGHAM IN TOULON: England arrived at the Toulon Tournament with minimal expectations but finished their group with maximum points following victory against Japan in their final match.
England arrived at the Toulon Tournament with minimal expectations but finished their group with maximum points following victory against Japan in their final match.
Manager Neil Dewsnip, in charge of a largely Under 18 side supplemented with Under 19s and 20s on the fringes of the national team, had already qualified for Thursday’s semi-finals and made multiple changes from an already mishmash squad to face Japan’s Under 19s.
England are defending their Toulon crown, having won it in 2016 for the first time in 22 years, but clashes with major Under 19,20 and 21 tournaments has left Dewsnip with an experimental national team that has produced unpredictable results.
Two penalties in each half here at the Stade de Lattre-de-Tassigny in Aubagne were enough to top the group on nine points.
George Hirst, an 18-year-old striker from Sheffield Wednesday, converted the first for his fourth goal of the tournament, after West Ham’s Daniel Kemp was pulled down by Kosuke Tanaka in the 25th minute.
Japan dominated much of the game and deserved to level the score through Mizuki Ando.
They controlled the tempo displaying high technical ability and with short, quick passes. But England tried to exploit their weakness of balls played behind the defence into the pockets of space.
It worked late on in the match when left wing-back Dimitri Mitchell, who made his Manchester United debut against Crystal Palace at Old Trafford last month, used his speed to sprint clear of Japan’s defenders forcing Yugo Tatsuta to foul him inside the penalty area. Chelsea’s Martell Taylor-Crossdale secured the victory.
