England MU18s began their mini-trip through Europe with an impressive win, beating Poland U19s by 5-2 in Opole on Friday evening.
Ian Foster’s squad had to come from behind too, when the hosts took an early lead after just five minutes when Bartosz Bialek opened the scoring.
But the Young Lions were quickly level when Bartlomiej Mruk scored an own goal to equalise.
England edged ahead through Dejan Tetek, on his MU18s debut, in the 23rd minute and they quickly added to that with a third goal from the penalty spot via captain Joe Gelhardt.
Gelhardt then added his second of the night two minutes into the second half to put England 4-1 up and in firm control.
Poland won a penalty of their own midway through the half with Javier Hyjek scoring, but the win was wrapped up in the final minute when sub Nonso Madueke made it 5-2.
The squad will now head south and through Czech Republic before entering Slovakia for their second game of the trip on Monday afternoon.
England: 1 James Trafford (Manchester City), 2 Luke Matheson (Rochdale), 3 Matt Bondswell (RB Leipzig), 4 Miguel Azeez (Arsenal), 6 Nathan Wood (Middlesbrough), 9 Joe Gelhardt (Wigan Athletic) (c ), 10 Cole Palmer (Manchester City), 11 Morgan Rogers (Manchester City), 12 Jeriel Dorsett (Reading), 16 Dejan Tetek (Reading), 17 Jeremy Sarmiento (Benfica)
Substitutes: 14 Jensen Weir (Wigan Athletic) for Tetek 62, 18 Alex Mighten (Nottingham Forest) for Sarmiento 62, 5 Haydon Roberts (Brighton & Hove Albion) for Bondswell 78, 8 Yunus Musah (Valencia) for Matheson 78, 19 Sam Greenwood (Arsenal) for Gelhardt 78, 7 Nonso Madueke (PSV Eindhoven) for Rogers 78, 20 Fabio Carvalho (Fulham) for Palmer 85
Substitutes not used: 13 Nathan Broome (Stoke City), 15 Teden Mengi (Manchester United), 22 Harvey Cartwright (Hull City)
Head coach: Ian Foster
Goals: Bartlomiej Mruk OG 9, Dejan Tetek 23, Joe Gelhardt 30 (pen), 47, Nonso Madueke 89
