England 0-1 France

The Montaigu Tournament
Thursday 13 April 2006
Mouilleron Le Captif

England were knocked off top spot in Group A when they lost to France on Thursday evening.

With the teams locked at 0-0 in the 69th minute, Mamadou Sakho settled the game with a tap-in after England failed to negotiate a free-kick taken from the edge of the area.

Arsenal's Rhys had England's best chance, forcing a good save from the French keeper, but Sakho's strike sealed it.

However, England goalkeeping coach Tony Parks was full of praise for The Three Lions, especially their rousing second half display.

"It was a good game between two evenly matched sides.

"To be fair to our lads, the French were the better side at half-time. We found it difficult against a high quality team. But we more than matched them in the second half and for a long period were better than them."

A former stopper himself, Parks singled out England goalkeeper Alex Smithies who made a string of wonderful saves.

"Our keeper was the busier of the two, he was the man of the match - that tells you about the number of chances they had.

"He was outstanding, he made three or four top class saves. We are lucky to have two excellent keepers."

Parks added that he and the rest of the support staff have taken plenty of positives from the game and hope to put things right against Tunisia on Saturday.

"France are the best side the boys have played against. They are one of the top-six sides in youth football.

"The lads will be disappointed, but if we beat Tunisia, we still have a chance of reaching the final game."

England: Smithies, Ofori-Twumasi, Reid, Taiwo (Harvey 65), Spence, Mattock, Franks, Murphy, Woods, Rose, Chambers.

Goals: Sakho 69