Germany 1-1 England

Celle, Germany
30 March 2004

On a warm and sunny Spring evening in Celle, Dick Bate's England Under 19's held Germany to a 1-1 draw.

Against a strong Germany side containing the latest young talent off the production lines of Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Werder Bremen, England were looking to fine tune their preparations ahead of the final qualifying phase of the UEFA European Under 19 Championships in Slovenia, with the Finals to be staged in Switzerland in July.

In front of a big crowd in Celle, boosted by a large English contingent from the nearby British forces bases, the Three Lions started cautiously, but had the first chance after fifteen minutes when Ian Henderson narrowly failed to connect.

A cross from Bayern Munich's Michael Stegmayer was flashed wide eight minutes later by VFB Stuttgart's Mario Gomes as Germany struggled to break down the defence being well marshalled by David Raven and Pat Collins, before coming within a whisker of taking the lead four minutes before half time, when the impressive Sahr Senesie of Borussia Dortmund just curled a shot past Ross Turnbull's left hand post.

Two minutes before half-time, England took the lead, and it was a goal to savour. Phil Ifil marauded down the right flank and sent over a tantalising cross deep to the far post. Richard Chaplow sidefooted the ball back into the dangerzone, and 16 year old Lee Holmes provided a sublime finish to England's best move of the half with an overhead kick low into the bottom corner to send England 1-0 up into the break.

England made three changes at half-time, as Head Coach Dick Bate kept his pre-match promise to give all of his eighteen man squad a run out. Mark Smythe, David Martin and Lee Croft entered the fray, and captain David Raven could have extended England's lead on 60 minutes, but couldn't quite get a good enough contact on a Garry Borrowdale free-kick from the left.

Eight minutes later David Martin was called upon to make a great save down to his left as Germany began to crank up the pressure, and as a few heavy legs in the England ranks began to appear, the home side finally got back on level terms on 73 minutes.

A long diagonal ball caught out Phil Ifil, resulting in a German free-kick 25 yards out. Senesie curled the resultant free-kick against the crossbar via a vital fingertip from Martin, but as the ball rebounded, centre back Sinkejewitz from FC Cologne responded first, chesting the ball down and crashing a volley past the helpless David Martin from 6 yards.

The final quarter of an hour saw a flurry of substitutions which disrupted the ebb and flow of the game, but England could have stolen the game right at the death. A free kick was awarded wide on the right, and as Mark Smythe curled a left footed free kick across the German box, the ball eluded everyone, including David Raven lunging in at the far post, to ensure that as the final whistle was blown, honours finished even.

England: Ross Turnbull (David Martin, 46), Phil Ifil (Osei Sankofa, 78) Garry Borrowdale (James Biggins, 87), Ross Gardner, David Raven, Patrick Collins, Ian Henderson, Richard Chaplow (Grant Leadbitter, 84), Ryan Jarvis (Mark Smythe, 46), Stacy Long (Scott Brown, 69), Lee Holmes (Lee Croft, 46mins)

Germany Goals: Sinkejewitz 73

England Goals: Holmes 43