Report: England MU18s 4-1 Morocco

England men’s under-18s were crowned champions of the Costa De La Luz U18 international tournament, comfortably beating Morocco 4-1.

After overcoming Uzbekistan in the opening game of the competition in Spain, the MU18s returned to Estadio Antonio Barbadillo.

With just 11 minutes played, the Young Lions made the breakthrough on the counter-attack.

Chizaram Ezenwata worked the ball with Ryan McAidoo quickly making his way up the field in a move which ended with Ezenwata slotting the ball calmly past the keeper at the near post.

McAidoo had chance to get himself on the scoresheet minutes later, cutting inside before smashing the ball against the post.

Morocco levelled things up in the second half soon after the restart, with 48 minutes on the watch.

Neil Ryan’s side re-took the lead with around 15 minutes left of the contest. Substitute Igor Tyjon, introduced in the second half, pounced on a loose ball which the forward blasted into the roof of the net.

Tyjon added a third for England – and his second goal of the game – in added time when he rolled the ball into the bottom left-hand corner to all but seal victory for Ryan’s team.

And the result was put beyond all doubt when, with the last kick of the game, a superb ball from Finlay Gorman picked out Alejandro Rodriguez who put the icing on the cake to make it 4-1.

The MU18s play their final game of the tournament on Tuesday 9 September (11am BST kick-off) when they face Canada.

England: 1 Lanre Awesu (West Ham United), 2 Dante Headley (Manchester City), 3 Bendito Mantato (Manchester United), 4 Harrison Miles (Manchester City), 5 Jun’ai Byfield (Tottenham Hotspur), 6 Kaden Braithwaite (Manchester City), 7 Ryan McAidoo (Manchester City), 8 Louis Page (Leicester City), 9 Chizaram Ezenwata (Chelsea), 10 Seth Ridgeon (Fulham), 11 Tynan Thompson (Tottenham Hotspur)

Substitutes: 12 Bradley Burrowes (Aston Villa) for Page 65’, 14 Reggie Walsh (Chelsea) for Ridgeon 65’, 15 Freddie Simmonds (Brighton & Hove Albion) for Byfield 65’, 16 Malachi Hardy (Tottenham Hotspur) for Braithwaite 65’, 17 Harry Howell (Brighton & Hove Albion) for Miles 65’, 18 Finlay Gorman (Manchester City) for Thompson 65’, 19 Alejandro Rodriguez (Olympique Lyonnais) for Ezenwata 65’, 20 Igor Tyjon (Blackburn Rovers) for McAidoo 65’, 21 Luca Williams-Barnett (Tottenham Hotspur) for Mantato 65’, 23 Landon Emenalo (Chelsea) for Headley 65’

Substitutes not used: 13 Dylan Moody (Southampton), 22 Freddy Bernal (Chelsea)

Head coach: Neil Ryan

Goals: Ezenwata 11’, Tyjon 76’ 93, Rodriguez 96'