If England needed a memory of how difficult it will be to defend their Under-21 European Championships Title this summer, they got it completely in force against a France littered with stars.
Lee Carsley, back the leadership of the under-21s who were temporary accusation of the seniors in the last camp, arrived in Lorient ready to see how this current crop was going against one of the world's best talent generators.
What he saw was a Topsy-Turvy eight target Thriller where Manchester United Target Hugo Ekitike scored a hat trick, Lyon's Rayan Cherki led the game with a goal and two assists and Harvey Elliott Mististed a penalty.
Carsley was daring in his selection and chose to switch to a 3-4-3 system with Elliot and James Mcatee on both sides of Liam Delap in Attack.
“This is our preparation of the European Championship,” said Carsley. “It was important that we tried something else.”
The approach of England paid off for 95 seconds when McATee brought in from the six-year box after Delap's first header was parried from the corner.
But this French team, which has formerly Invincible Gael Clichy of Arsenal under his coaching staff, is full of potential superstars stacked and they led within five minutes.
Quentin Merlin pulled the level of the hosts and Cherki, Sublime here and the orchestrator of Die Merlin strike, had his hand in the second when his ball chose the top Ekitike who was about England -goalkeeper James Beadle Tilde.
Cherki, who added a fifth, ran so far for his colleagues, he was often reduced to walking pace and the pleasure of France continued when Ekitike held back to convert the cross of Wilson Odobert to bring it 3-1.
There was still time for a hectic first half to surrender even more drama when Elliott reduced the shortage by tapping the line after a header over the goal by McATEEE.
England ensured that they did not roll in the second half with a header from a Garden from Delap after the Hattrick goal of Ekitike, making it 4-3.
And before everything was said and did Elliott missed a penalty, Cherki scored the fifth of France and Omari Hutchinson to be sent to England.
“We have to experiment,” Carlsey added. 'We have to try something and we also try it at a top team. It is a good test for the players.
“We always want to play with a blow and we want to score goals.”
Comments