Eastick: 'It could've gone either way'

England U20s Head Coach Brian Eastick saw his team desperately unfortunate not to get at least a point out of their opening game of the World Cup in Egypt on Saturday night.

A stunning late goal from Uruguay substitute Tabara Viudez saw them edge a victory at the Ismailia Stadium, but there were more than enough positives to take from the performance into Tuesday's game with Ghana.

"It was a very close encounter, a very close game," said Eastick.

"We said at half time that we didn't think the tempo was going to change and it looked like it was going to be a 0-0 or a 1-0 either way and that proved to be the case.

"With ten minutes to go I'm sure their coach would have been as nervous as I was, as one chance can sway the game one way or the other.

"And unfortunately for us, it went Uruguay's way and it was a very good goal and the lad took it very well."

With the humidity in the stadium and Uruguay's physical strength, Eastick felt that perhaps played a part in their success.

"I thought they were physically stronger than us in the last 20 minutes but we have a very, very young team, probably the youngest in the tournament," he explained.

"I think we perhaps lacked a bit of cutting edge in making the most of the chances that we had.

"Uruguay probably had that little bit more cutting edge up front.

"But for 80 minutes, I thought there was absolutely nothing in the game and if we can perform like that in the last two games, we should have a good chance of going to the next stage."