England Supporters Club

England U17s make winning start to Euro qualifiers

Posted by Team England at 17:42 on Wednesday 30 September 2015

A ruthless England Under-17s got their European Championship qualification campaign off to a dream start as they struck eight times without reply past San Marino on Tuesday.

Steve Cooper’s side flew out the traps and had a five goal advantage at the break thanks to goals from Niall Ennis, Jonathan Leko, Reiss Nelson, Jaden Brown and Samuel Shashoua.

And they refused to give their opponents in Portugal any respite after the break as Shashoua, Dennis Adeniran and Adam Lewis added a further three strikes.

England got off to a flying start and Edward Francis almost gave the Young Lions the lead inside two minutes when his effort from Nelson’s corner thundered against the crossbar, but he and his team-mates would not have a long wait before the goals started flowing.

Wolves forward Ennis opened the scoring in the sixth minute and it was 2-0 just five minutes later as Jonathan Leko tapped home following good work from Nelson who had weaved through the defence before firing the ball across goal.

Leko then repaid the favour for Nelson as he teed up the Arsenal man for a third before the goalscorer provided the assist for Jaden Brown to run on and stroke the ball into the bottom corner past the helpless goalkeeper Nicola Antonelli. Tottenham’s Samuel Shashoua stole the ball from a defender inside the San Marino half before smashing an unstoppable strike into the top corner for the fifth.

Brown, Leko, Trevoh Chalobah and Shashoua all went close to extending the advantage before the break, but the lead would remain at five as the official blew the whistle to allow Antonelli and his defenders some respite.

Cooper made two changes at the break as Leko and Ennis were replaced by Liverpool’s Adam Lewis and Newcastle United’s Mackenzie Heaney, but the goals continued to flow as Shashoua grabbed his second two minutes after the restart following another Nelson assist.

There was then a debut goal for Fulham midfielder Dennis Adeniran who got on the end of a Shashoua free-kick to make it seven.

Lewis completed the scoring in the 49th minute to ensure Cooper's side made it a convincing start to their group.

The Young Lions face Armenia, who were defeated 7-0 by hosts Portugal later in the day, in their next qualifier on Thursday at 2pm.