Portugal 1-0 England

U17 Algarve Tournament
Lagos, Portugal
27 January 2005

England lost their second match of the Algarve Tournament to Daniel Candeias' well-taken goal nine minutes from time.

The Portuguese are always strong at youth team level and once again they proved to be a worthy opponent for John Peacock's side in what was an entertaining and very even match.

"We didn't deserve to lose the match, it was one of those games where neither side really took control but the players will learn from it," Peacock told TheFA.com after the match.

"We started a little slowly but then we got a good spell going in the second 20 minutes of the first half.

"It's a good learning curve for the players as they will now have the experience of being in the driving seat in a competition but knowing that one mistake can really cost you."

England now have to gear themselves up for the final match of this tournament, against Norway on Saturday.

"Norway are a decent side, even though they've lost their first two matches. We need to win and hope that someone else does us a favour. We will see but it is disappointing to have it taken out of our hands.

"I'm still pleased with the players, I think they will have benefited from both the games so far but now we want to finish on a positive note."

The other match in the tournament saw France, who lost 3-1 to England, bounce back with a 5-1 win over the Norwegians.

England U17 v Portugal, Lagos, 27 January 2005

England: Zac Jones - Blackburn Rovers, Chris Riley - Tottenham Hotspur, Scott Golbourne - Bristol City, Seb Hines - Middlesbrough, Theo Walcott - Southampton, Andrew Gooding - Coventry City, Joe Garner - Blackburn Rovers, Darryl Knights - Ipswich Town (Hogan Ephraim - West Ham Utd), Scott Phelen - Everton (Mark Davies - Wolverhampton Wanderers, Elliot Omozusi - Fulham, Lewis McGugan - Nottingham Forest (Fabrice Muamba -Arsenal)

Portugal: Rui Patrício; Hugo Monteiro; Carlos Alves; João Martins; Fábio Paim (Rui Pedro, 40); Daniel Candeias (Carlos Freitas, 78); Ricardo Nogueira (Fábio Pereira, 63) ; Pedro Carneiro; André Castro; André Monteiro (João Gonçalves, 72); Yago Fernandez

Goals: Candeias 71