England U17s finish their Elite Round with victory over Hungary and a 100 per cent record.
Hungary 0-2 England
UEFA European U17 Championship
Elite Qualifying Round
Monday 30 March 2009
John Peacock's Young Lions completed their Elite Round qualifying games with a perfect record on Monday evening, as goals from Benik Afobe and Jacob Walcott sealed a 2-0 win over hosts Hungary.
A place in the last eight at May's European Championship Finals had already been secured thanks to victories over Portugal and Serbia in England's first two games, so the result of this encounter wouldn't have affected things but Peacock will have been pleased with the way his team controlled the game and picked up a deserved win to finish what looked a tough group with a 100 per cent record.
Having named the same team for the first two games, Peacock made changes for this match with the likes of Jonjo Shelvey, Jose Baxter, Luke Garbutt and Luke Freeman named as substitutes.
England ran out as deserved victors though, as after a goal-less first half, Walcott put the Lions ahead from close range after being picked out by Afobe's cross from the left in the 57th minute.
Just a few minutes later, the win was secured when Afobe latched onto and intercepted a back pass. The Arsenal striker's first effort was saved by Hungarian goalkeeper Robert Ambrusics, but when the rebound fell back out to him, he made no mistake to set England on their way to victory and qualification.
The other result in the group saw Serbia beat Portugal by 3-2, leaving England well clear at the top of the table and into the last eight of the competition.
Hungary1 Robert Ambrusics, 4 Keneth Otigba, 5 Mark Farkas, 6 David Kelemen, 7 Mate Skriba, 13 Milan Kalasz, 14 Dalint Nagy, 15 Zsolt Todias, 16 Csada Ponczok, 17 Matyas Magos, 18 Lajos Toth.
Substitutes: 12 Peter Nacsa, 2 Krisztian Tar, 3 Botond Barath, 9 Norbert Angya, 8 Armand Nagy.
England 13 Sam Johnstone, 2 James Hurst (10 Luke Freeman, 67) 4 Gary Gardner (16 Lateef Elford-Alliyu, 41), 6 Tom Parkes, 9 Benik Afobe, 11 Thomas Ince, 12 Josh McEachran, 14 John Bostock, 15 Eddie Oshodi, 17 Jacob Walcott, 18 Sam Habergham.
Substitutes: 1 Jed Steer, 3 Luke Garbutt, 5 Louis Laing, 7 Jonjo Shelvey, 8 Jose Baxter.