England Under 19s Progress to Elite Round Following Ukraine Draw

Noel Blake will be pleased with his sides’ progress.

England Under 19s drew their final game in Estonia to progress to the elite round of qualifying for the 2013 European Championship.

Vladyslav Pavlenko fired Ukraine into an 88th minute lead in Tallinn which would have seen them progress as group winners but an injury-time equaliser from Hallam Hope as he latched on to the end of Blair Turgott’s free-kick was enough to snatch a draw and allow the Young Lions to finish top of the table.

It was a fairly equal game with both sides coming close on numerous occasions. Jordan Pickford and Bogdan Sarnavskiy were both called into action regularly throughout the match.

England kicked off their three-game Estonia journey with a 3-0 victory over the hosts. Jordi Hiwula opened the scoring in the first half on his under 19s debut.

Blair Turgott and Chuba Akpom bagged a goal each in the second-half to secure the victory.

Meanwhile Ukraine convincingly beat Faroe Islands 6-0 in their opening fixture.

When England took on the small islands, Turgott and Akpom both scored doubles, taking their tallies to three each for the tournament whilst Hallam Hope and Calum Chambers both netted in a 6-0 thrashing of the Faroes.

It would mean that England went into today’s game with Ukraine topping the table as Ukraine failed to beat Estonia by the same margin as England, falling a goal short.

Fortunately they managed to seal a draw which sees them top the group on goal difference and give them a better seeding when it comes to the Elite Qualifying Round draw.