June 18 2019

Wan-Bissaka: A bad day at the office for the youngster

Crystal Palace right back Aaron Wan-Bissaka scored an injury time own goal to gift France a 2-1 win in England's opening European Under-21 Championship match.

The 21-year-old, who has been a target for Manchester United this summer, started the game for England U21s in his usual right-back position.

The French had a penalty in the 25th minute after Jake Clarke-Salter handled the ball in the box. England keeper Dean Henderson was on hand though to push Dembele's spot kick away, and the score remained 0-0.

The stalemate continued until the second half when England took the lead in the 54th minute through a brilliant individual goal by Manchester City's Phil Foden.

The match turned though on 63 minutes when Leicester's Hamza Choudhury was sent off for a rash challenge in the box. Despite winning their second pen, France yet again missed from the spot, this time through Houssem Aouar.

France dominated the game after the sending off, and were level on 89 minutes through Nanitamo Ikone, squeezing the ball past Henderson's left hand post.

Deep into stoppage time the game went from bad to worse for the Young Lions, when they conceded from a corner - Wan-Bissaka lost his man at the back post, and in struggling to recover ground managed to poke the ball into the England net instead of clearing it.

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England now trail in Group C after France and Romania beat Croatia in their opening games and Aidy Boothroyd's side face an uphill battle to progress.

Realistically, they need to win their next two games against Romania on Friday and then Croatia on Monday, as only the group winner automatically qualifies for the semi-finals, as well as the best-placed runner-up.