Pașcanu's Romania Beat England At U21 EURO

Internationals
21 Jun 2019
2 Minutes
Alex Pașcanu's Romania Under-21s defeated an England side featuring three Foxes in the UEFA European Championship group stage on Friday.

- Four Leicester City players featured as Romania beat England 4-2 in Italy
- Academy graduate Alex Pașcanu picked up his second win of the UEFA Under-21 EUROs
- James Maddison, Demarai Gray and Harvey Barnes started for the Young Lions
- Gray scored a brilliant goal England's youngsters, but Romania go top of Group C

Academy star Harvey Barnes, Demarai Gray and James Maddison all started for the Young Lions in Cesena, who needed a win to keep up their hopes of progressing from Group C.

Pașcanu was part of a resolute Romanian defence that made chances hard to come by for England's creative players, until a manic final 15 minutes saw a total of six goals go in.

Maddison had a good chance on 60 minutes having shot wide from distance in the first-half. The midfielder’s effort from the edge of the box forced a neat save from Ionut Radu on the hour-mark.

Romania took the lead on 76 minutes through a George Puscas penalty, but England hit back minutes later, with Gray producing a moment of magic to level the scores.

The Leicester winger cut inside from the left before firing a shot from the edge of the area that Radu couldn’t keep out.

As quickly as England were back into the game, Romania had restored their lead. On 85 minutes, Ianis Hagi capitalised on an error to make it 2-1, but Tammy Abraham equalised swiftly. 

Foxes winger Demarai Gray scored England's first goal of the afternoon.

It was heartbreak for Aidy Boothroyd’s side, though, as Dean Henderson allowed a long-range strike from Florinel Coman to crawl under his body.

In the latter moments, the Steaua București forward grabbed his second of the evening to give Romania victory.

Following the evening fixture between Filip Benković's Croatia and France, a 1-0 win for the latter, Romania sat top of Group C with six points, while England are third and yet to secure a point.

Both England and Croatia have exited the competition with a game to play, against one another, on Monday evening (8pm BST kick-off).