England’s under-20 team again lost an important international event when they were thrown out of U20 world cup by Egypt. They lost by 2-0 and finished on the last place in their group; their defeat gave an indirect advantage to other two teams Iraq and Chile. Actually, England required at least a draw to keep its hopes alive but two late goals from Trezeguet and Hassan Ahmed ruined their odds to go to the knockout stage. It was their third match in the tournament after they drew their first two games. This is, in fact, the worst period going on for young English team coz they have played as many as 16 matches in world cup without even a single win which is a shocking for a team of this caliber. As far U20 world cup journey is concerned, it is full of miserable performances; coz they have not overcome in any WC match since 1997. Known out stage will begin from coming Tuesday when four more teams will be out of the scene. The match was rather a close one for both teams coz no one could score until last eleven minutes of the game. England also got some opportunities in between but they could not capitalize any of them. Notably, English players made some good attempts in the first half but Egypt goalkeeper stopped even the finest shots from forwards Larnell Cole, Conor Coady, and Harry Kane.
England team manager Peter Taylor accepted his team’s wicked performance and said after the match that “I thought we would win tonight, to be honest, because I thought we were improving as a team. Unfortunately, it was our worst performance since we’ve been here, but I don’t think I’ve seen a team create as many chances and lost a game 2-0 and that’s why it’s frustrating. If you don’t play as well as you can and you don’t take chances, you get punished, and that’s what happened tonight.
“Egypt showed good character to win the match tonight having lost the previous two games. We still feel we could have scored more goals and that’s the mistake that we made. Their first goal was very well taken and the second came when we were trying to get back into it.”
He finally added some words to appreciate his team’s journey and said, “The experience of playing in the U20 World Cup will have been fantastic for everybody. It’s a brilliant competition, but we’re disappointed.”