Martin Hunter's Young Lions lost 2-1 to host nation Belgium in their opening Elite Qualifying round match.

England v Belgium
UEFA European U19 Championship
Elite Qualifying Round
FC Tournai, Belgium
7pm 18 May 2006,
For the full match schedule click here

England fell to a slim defeat in their opening European Championship qualifier at the hands of hosts Belgium, losing by a narrow margin despite creating a number of opportunities.

Martin Hunter was dissatisfied with the performance from his team, but was determined to look on the bright side with two games remaining in the Qualifying Round.

Speaking to TheFA.com he said: "We never really got going and it became an uphill struggle for us as the game went on. At times it was very scrappy and some of the football played was pretty poor tonight, but we have to look forward and not make the same mistakes again.

"To be fair to Belgium they had a very good side out, their goalkeeper looks very strong as does their centre forward and their right winger. They will be very difficult to beat on that form.

"On the positive side Joe Hart did well in goal, and Matthew Connolly and Stuart Nicholson have made their international debuts tonight so it's not all doom and gloom.

"It's one game in three and we must now prepare for Saturday's game with Northern Ireland which will be tough as they come off the back of a victory today. We'll assess the situations from tonight's game and hopefully the boys can show what they can do on Saturday."

England suffered an early blow when they fell behind after just six minutes with Belgium capitalising on a slow start by the visitors to set up an early advantage.

Jorn Vermeulen was the goalscorer but England had only themselves to blame for giving the ball away in a dangerous area of the pitch.

The Young Lions were not deterred by the loss of an early goal and tried to play their own game, and on a few occasions they caused Belgium some problems particularly in wide areas.

Although England were able to advance on the Belgian defence they were unable to convert their opportunities and went into the break still trailing by one goal.

The game was always finely balanced however, with both teams fashioning openings throughout the game. Unfortunately for England it was Belgium who made their opportunities count and 23 minutes into the second period they doubled their lead.

This time it was the impressive right-winger Jonathan Legear who got his name on the scoresheet, although it was another example of England failing to hold on to the ball that created the chance.

With little more than 20 minutes remaining the game seemed beyond Martin Hunter's team, but remarkably they struck back almost immediately with a well taken goal from Joe Garner.

The Blackburn Rovers striker was at the right place at the right time to give England a fighting chance of taking something from the game.

Buoyed by the quick equaliser there reappeared an outside chance for the visiting team but as time ticked away, so did England's hopes of rectifying their losing margin.

Though they begin with defeat at FC Tournai, England will take much from their creative play but know that they will require cool heads in front of goal if they are to overcome Northern Ireland on Saturday evening - the side from across the Irish Channel having begun with a 4-1 victory over Serbia and Montenegro.

England Team: Joe Hart (Shrewsbury Town), Billy Jones (Crewe Alexandra), Ben Parker (Leeds United), David Wheater (Middlesbrough) (Matthew Connolly (Arsenal)), Micah Richards (Manchester City), Gary Roberts (Crewe Alexandra), Mark Davies (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Adam Johnson (Middlesbrough), Lee Holmes (Derby County), Nathan Dyer (Southampton), Joe Garner (Blackburn Rovers) (Stuart Nicholson (West Brom))