France 0-2 England

UEFA European Under-19 Championships
Sportpark Eschen/Mauren - Eschen
Friday 18 July 2003 

Goals from Liam Ridgewell and Wayne Routledge gave England a 2-0 win against France and put them back in contention for the European Under 19 Championships

Having lost their first Group B match to Austria on Wednesday, Stuart Baxter's men needed a victory from this game to get their challenge back on track.

France had much of the possession in the opening 30 minutes and on 26 minutes almost took the lead when Sylvain Idangar beat Luke Steele to a cross, but Ridgewell was on hand to clear from under the bar. And 15 minutes later, it was the Villa man who changed the face of the game at the other end.

A free-kick wide on the left was swung in by Routledge towards the head of Ridgewell who guided into the net giving Florent Chaigneau little chance to save.

The 68th minute sending off of French midfielder Emmers Fae for throwing the ball at Ciaran Donnelly, swung the game further towards England as the Young Lions began to take control and open up Les Bleus' defence. With three minutes played in injury time Crystal Palace winger Routledge added a second for England, turning in Lee Croft's cross at the far post sending England into second place - three points behind Austria, who beat the Czech Republic 4-1.  

Despite playing much of the game on their back foot, Stuart Baxter was delighted with the way his players played and highlights their discipline as the reason the beat a very talented French side.

"I said to the players before the game that 'If you're going to beat France in a game like this you've got to be disgustingly disciplined' and they were," said Baxter.

"We chose to defend a bit deeper than we normally do. I thought if we play that way and defend poorly we lose, but the defenders who played poorly against Austria did well today."
"We've really challenged the lads since the Austria game - a lot of players played under their normal capacity.

"We didn't give a good impression so playing against France and knowing you've got to repair both you reputation and get back into the tournament, that's a massive response they've given today - I'm really pleased," he added.
Teams

France
1 Chaigneau, 3 Berthod, 5 Faty, 9 Grax, 10 Meghni, 12 Fae, 13 Idangar, 14 Ebondo, 15 Jacmot, 17 Bourillon, 18 Barthelemy
Subs: 2 Camara, 4 Colombo, 6 Drouin, 7 Glombard, 8 Yebda, 11 Jouffre, 16 Fabre

England
1 Luke Steele, 2 Justin Hoyte, 3 Peter Whittingham, 4 John Welsh, 5 Liam Ridgewell, 6 Andrew Davies, 7 Wayne Routledge, 8 Ciaran Donnelly, 9 Tommy Wright, 11 Stewart Downing, 16 Marcel McKie,
Subs: 10 Lee Croft, 13 Lee Camp, 14 Alan Moogan, 15 Dean Leacock, 17 Jerome Watt, 18 Dorryl Proffitt

Goals: Ridgewell 41, Routledge 90