Report: England WU17s 1-4 Netherlands

England women’s under-17s suffered a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Netherlands in their UEFA Women’s U17 EURO second qualifying round.

The Young Lionesses are in Finland playing for a place in May’s EURO Finals in Faroe Islands, and made a good start last week with a 3-2 victory over Sweden.

But Remi Allen’s team were dealt a blow to their qualification hopes in Turku, as they came up against a clinical Dutch team at the Veritas Stadium.

After a cagey opening to the game, the Netherlands caught England out with two quickfire goals in the first half, just before the half-hour mark, when Maud Koster put them ahead following a corner from Jaidi Touzani in the 27th minute.

And they doubled their advantage two minutes later when Sophue Van Hunnik got on the end of a pass from Anne Gelevert to put them in control of the game.

Ten minutes into the second half, another corner from Touzani led to the Netherlands’ third with Tess Van Der Vliet putting them 3-0 up and then Ranneke Derks made it four in the 64th minute.

England pulled a goal a goal back in the later stages of the game when Sacha Lewis scored to make it 4-1.

The Young Lionesses will now go into their final match against host nation Finland on Thursday morning (11.30am), knowing that they need to win in order to stand any chance of qualifying with only the team who tops the group progressing to the EURO Finals in May. The Netherlands face Sweden in their final game, having also beaten Finland by 4-0 in their first match.

England: 1 Silvana Marshall Miranda (Brighton & Hove Albion), 2 Sacha Lewis (Manchester City / Derby County), 3 Chloe Sarwie (Chelsea), 4 May Cruft (Rangers), 5 Niamh Peacock (Arsenal), 7 Isabel Hebard (Bristol City) (c), 8 Eva Forster (North Carolina Courage), 9 Freya Hirons (Aston Villa), 10 Vera Jones (Chelsea), 11 Jane Oboavwoduo (Manchester City), 16 Lucy Day (Birmingham City)

Substitutes: 17 Jhanaie Pierre (Tottenham Hotspur) for Herbard 65, 19 Natasha Udebhulu (Southampton) for Jones 80, 20 Eva Hendle (Chelsea) for Oboavwoduo 85, 14 Isabelle Sullivan (Chelsea) for Forster 85

Substitutes not used: 6 Zara Bailey (Tottenham Hotspur) (c), 12 Elise Christian (Chelsea), 13 Hope McSheffrey (Arsenal), 15 Isabella Cowley (Chelsea), 18 Evie McCaffrey (Manchester City / Derby County)