Italy late show stuns England
England u17 2-2 Italy u17
March 28 2006
Attendance - 5,165
By Andrew Haigh,Galpharm Stadium, Huddersfield.
England - Thomson '24 '27
Italy - Mustacchio '24 Marconi '74
A 25-yard strike six minutes from time by substitute
Michele Marconi handed Italy a 2-2 draw against a spirited England side.
England had lead 2-1 for more than half of the game, with all three goals coming in a three minute spell.
A strong run and shot by Mattia Mustacchio put the Italians ahead on 24 minutes but less than half a minute
later, England were level, an individual effort by Jake Thomson sending the Huddersfield crowd into raptures.
Southampton FC's Thomson then doubled his tally three minutes later, latching on to a through
ball by Daniel Sturridge, who was inspirational on the night.
England had a number of chances either side of half time but failed to make them pay. Daniel Sturridge
hit the bar on 68 minutes after good work from Febian Brandy
Coach Antonio Rocca rang the changes in the second half making three substitutions in twenty minutes.
And it was half time substitute Michele Marconi who levelled the scores on 74 minutes, a strike from the edge of
the area left the England defence stunnded.
The result leaves group seven hanging in the balance with both teams still having to play Russia and Bulgaria.
After the game John Peacock, England Under-17s head coach said:
“They always say don’t lose your first game in a best of three and we haven’t done that so we have to take a lot
of positives from today.
“Having got ourselves 2-1 up with about five minutes to go, im disspointed but im absolutely delighted with the
way the team played. We’ve trained well over the last three or four days and we transferred a lot of that work
onto the pitch and I cant sing high enough praise for the way they performed tonight.
“When we were 2-1 up the were a couple of close shaves and I think if that had gone in at 3-1 the game would have
been over, so hopefully we’ll be more clinical. But credit to Italy they kept at it and made it a very difficult
job for us tonight in terms of trying to win the game. We always knew that it was a three game tournament and we
have got to push on now and deal with Bulgaria on Thursday.
“We’ll move on from that and we’ll learn from it in terms of trying to keep the lead but Bulgaria will be a difficult
game for us on Thursday.
Speaking about Jake Thomson's brace, Peacock added: “I think the two goals we scored tonight were excellent and
we created several other chances so I think that’s the disappointing bit really.
“They were two strikes of the highest order and he [Jake Thomson] probably could have had a third. He had a couple
of chances in the first half and the keeper made a great save on one and he probably should have put the other
one away. But all round I think we were excellent.”
England left-back Ryan Bertrand added: "I thought we deserved a win, I think it was a lucky
goal and in the second half I thought we held the game well but we didn't finish our chances.
"We're not disappointed because we didn't get beaten and were still in the same boat as them.
"We're just looking and keeping positive, sticking together and we should win the next two games. If we win
them, then we have a good chance of getting through." |
