Under 18 report from New York Stadium...
A bumper crowd saw Neil Dewsnip’s men come from behind to claim a 2-1 victory over Germany, and maintain England’s 100% record at New York Stadium.
With England behind entering the final quarter of the match, two goals in four minutes from substitutes sealed the win for the Three Lions.
The first half chance of the game came from the visitors as a looping cross from the left was met on the volley by Yanni Regasel who volleyed across goal and narrowly wide of Ted Smith’s right-hand post.
Despite some sustained possession it took more than 10 minutes for the young Lions to mount a response but the tricky Ryan Kent had his effort comfortably held.
The visitors responded well and two more shots were fired in from distance, one harmlessly rolling wide, after the first by Lucas Cueto had been gathered at the second attempt by Smith.
The game settled, and chances became few and far between until eight minutes before the break when a probing ball calved open the England defence and Patrick Pflucke raced onto it, keeping his composure to slide the ball beyond Smith and put Germany ahead.
With half-time approaching, it was Kent again who caused problems down England’s right and when he squared for Nathan Oduwa, the Tottenham Hotspur man should have done better than fire high and wide from 12 yards.
The second half began much the same way as the first ended, with neither side seeing much of the opposition’s goalmouth, and in fact as the clock neared the hour mark, Alex Gilliead was gifted an excellent opportunity but took too long to pull the trigger and was dispossessed.
Harry Winks was introduced and within minutes his forward run created space for striker Bradley Fewster to run into and when he was dispossessed, Kent managed to get a shot away from the angle which was comfortable for Marius Funk.
For Germany, their first chance of the second period had to wait even longer, and it was a lovely piece of footwork from Mahmoud Dahoud that set it up in the midfield, but when he received Cueto’s pass back he couldn’t get over the ball and fired into the south stand.
Dewsnip made two changes 73 minutes in and one of those, Dean Rittenberg had an immediate impact, coming off the bench and powerfully heading home Oduwa’s cross within 30 seconds to level things up.
And within four minutes, things got even better as Rittenberg this time turned provider, twisting and turning at the byline before crossing for fellow substitute Winks to pounce via the aid of a deflection.
It could have been three just a minute later as Rittenberg again found space in the area, but the Blackburn Rovers striker dragged his effort wide.
Five minutes were indicated and after some fine defensive work by Brendan Galloway at one end, Fewster was a post-width away from sealing the win, sliding in to meet Rittenberg's centre, but only to see the ball bounce away from the base of the goalframe.
Full-time
England 2-1 Germany
England: Smith, Birch (Burke 74), Smith-Brown, Morris, Dickie, Galloway, Kent (Miller 84), Gilliead (Winks 66), Fewster, Oduwa (Brown 87), Barker (Rittenberg 74).
Unused: Burton.
Germany: Funk, Regasel (Dehm HT), Kijewski, Nkansah, Fohrenbach, Dahoud, Cueto (Kinscher 87), Ristl, Kurt, Pflucke (Amiri 69), Barry.
Unused: Pflug, Ure, Scholl, Moos , Fassnacht, Korber.
Att: 9,119