The England U21s beat France 4-0 in a statement victory on Saturday, but their final official match before this summer’s European Championship was a disaster as a heavily changed team lost 2-1 to Croatia at Craven Cottage.
That victory over France backed up recent wins over Italy and Germany and cemented Lee Carsley’s side as one of the favourites to win the Euros in Georgia and Romania.
But Carsley made 10 changes to the team that saw off the French in Leicester, and those brought in were not, it turned out, up to the task.
After half an hour, it was a slumbering game which needed a goal to bring it to life. Such a goal arrived courtesy of a poor free-kick conceded by 18-year-old debutant Rico Lewis, who has been shining for Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City recently.
Lewis committed a cynical foul, for which he received a yellow card, and up stepped midfielder Martin Baturina to curl in a stellar free-kick with Gareth Bale-like technique. The ball swung up and over England’s wall, landing right in the top-left corner.
England had started the half in decent fettle, but after Baturina’s stunner they faded and pressed Croatia disjointedly and with frustration, hunching their backs when an intricate move didn’t come off.
Lee Carsley replaced Bolton goalkeeper James Trafford with West Brom’s Josh Griffiths at the break. Noni Madueke, who joined Chelsea from PSV for all of £30m in January, endured a frustrating match, tripping over the ball on a number of occasions. He forced goalkeeper Dominik Kotarski into a couple of decent saves, but it wasn’t long before he was axed.
By the time England’s heavyweight attackers Emile Smith Rowe, Morgan Gibbs-White and Harvey Elliott entered the fray, England had conceded again and Croatia were well on the way to victory.
Leicester left-back Luke Thomas is an experienced member of Carsley’s side, yet he was off-colour in the first half and got on the wrong side of Matija Frigan in the box in the second. Referee Krzysztof Jakubik pointed to the spot, from where Augsburg’s Dion Drena Beljo dispatched the penalty.
Griffiths’s point-blank block from Lukas Kacavenda stopped it becoming even uglier for England, before the Young Lions found a little inspiration from the depths of something somewhere — Cole Palmer and Madueke striking on goal but failing to beat Kotarski.
Gibbs-White beat Kotarski to the ball on 87 minutes and won a penalty which he took himself and converted with aplomb. It was very much too little too late for England, who will rue missed opportunities in attack and two very costly fouls from Lewis and Thomas in defence.
Not an ideal way to head into a major tournament.
