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England’s U19 European Championship finals continues to go extremely well. Tottenham Hotspur youngsters Josh Onomah and Kyle Walker-Peters again started and went 90 minutes in the Young Lions’ 2-1 win over Croatia. Chelsea starlet Isaiah Brown scored for England in the fourth minute, and what was originally called a goal by Walker-Peters six minutes later was eventually credited as a Croatia own-goal.
10: GOAL! The #YoungLions have another goal as @KyleLPeters doubles the #U19Euro lead over Croatia. pic.twitter.com/XUA01SEacn
— England (@England) July 18, 2016
22: The #YoungLions' second goal has now been given as an own-goal by Silvio Anočić. Sorry, @KyleLPeters! #u19euro [2-0]
— England (@England) July 18, 2016
Interestingly, KWP and Onomah both started in midfield for England in this match. Onomah started in the pivot of a 4-2-3-1 beside Everton product Ryan Ledson. Walker-Peters, normally utilized as a right fullback, was pushed up as a right sided attacking midfielder, but spent some time at three different positions during the match.
KWP started at RW, moved to CAM after half-time, then played RB for a few minutes & finished the game at LB.
— Tottenham Academy (@thfcacademy) July 18, 2016
Onomah in the pivot could be especially interesting to Spurs fans; in his substitute appearances with Tottenham last season he was utilized mostly as an attacking midfielder. If he’s able to excel as a member of a midfield pivot that could potentially add a new wrinkle in the positional battle to be Moussa Dembele’s backup.
With the win, England swept all three of their group matches and head into their semifinal match against Italy with a full head of steam. The semifinals will take place on July 21 in either Mannheim or Sandhausen; the time and location of the fixture has not yet been determined. Portugal and France play in the other semifinal, in a “rematch” of the senior squads’ Euro championship game.