England 1-1 France

The Algarve Tournament
18 February 2007
Silves, Portugal

England will meet Germany on Tuesday in a winner-takes-all clash after the young Lions drew 1-1 with France.

Arsenal's Rhys Murphy gave John Peacock's starlets a first half lead when he converted a penalty after Tom Elliott was fouled in the box.

But the French battled back and earned a point when Thibault Bourgeois, of FC Metz, capitalised on a mistake in the English defence.

"It was a very fair result," said Peacock, the England Head Coach.

"I have no complaints about it. Both goals were probably against the run of play.

"We did not play particularly well in the first half. The French were on top. Our ball retention was not good - that's something we have to work on. But we got a penalty, which was definitely a penalty, no two ways about it.

"We said at half-time that we needed to be much better in the second half if we were to win, and we played much better after the break. But a mistake gifted them a one-on-one which they took."

Peacock added that while England played well, they did not really threaten the French goal.

"We were in the ascendency without really creating much in the attacking third," he said. "That's another thing to look at."

The draw means England have four points - 24 hours earlier they secured a narrow 1-0 win over Portugal - the same tally as Germany who followed up a 2-0 win over France with a 1-1 draw with hosts Portugal.

"That sets it up nicely for the last game," said Peacock. "We are still in the frame at the last match - that was one of the objectives when we came out here."

England: Smithies, Taiwo (Harvey 68), Spence, Smith, Rose, Murphy (Franks 59), Moses, Ofori-Twumasi, Elliott, Plummer (Barnett 68), Reid.

England Goals: Murphy 23 pen

France Goals: Bourgeois 51