England WU19s kicked off their UEFA Women’s Under-19 Championship qualifying campaign with a hard-fought 2-0 win over Greece.
Mia Enderby’s penalty and a goal from Katy Watson in the final ten minutes helped Amy Merricks’ side to victory at the Cardiff International Sports Campus on Tuesday afternoon.
England were rarely troubled by Greece defensively and created chances in either half, although they did find it hard to break down the opposition defence in the first half.
Ava Baker and Freya Godfrey forced Fafailia Petaloti into saves in the opening 45 minutes and Georgia Mullett almost rounded the goalkeeper but the Young Lionesses were unable to find the breakthrough.
In first-half injury-time, England goalkeeper Eve Annets had to save a long-range shot from Konstantina Kostopoulou but it was to be Greece’s only effort on target throughout the 90 minutes.
The Young Lionesses were much improved in the second half but it looked as though they would have to settle for a point heading into the final ten minutes, after Lexi Potter, Godfrey and substitute Poppy Pritchard all had efforts just miss the target and Kostopoulou saved well to deny Mullett.
But England scored what looked to be the deciding goal in the 83rd minute after Cerys Brown was brought down in the box and Liverpool’s Enderby stepped up to score in the bottom corner despite the best efforts of Kostopoulou.
Brown had an effort just go wide and captain Shauna Guyatt rattled the woodwork as England searched for a second goal late on.
Then in the final moments of extra-time, Watson rounded off the win when she scored from a tight angle after being played through by Potter.
Next up for Merricks’ side is a trip to Dragon Park, the Wales National Football Centre, on Friday to take on the hosts, with the game kicking off at 6pm. Wales began with a 3-0 defeat against Czechia.
Meanwhile, Scotland suffered a 6-2 defeat against Iceland in Group A7, Tiree Burchill and Kayla Jardine pulling goals back for Michael McArdle’s team, before Katla Tryggvadottir completed her hat-trick with a late double.
