UEFA European Under-21 Championship Qualifiers
England 3-1 Scotland
Friday, 6 October 2017, kick-off 7.45pm
Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough
England: Onomah (14), Abraham, pen (49), Solanke (79)
Scotland: Cadden (78’)
Scotland suffered their first defeat of their Under-21 Championship Qualifying campaign in a battling performance against a strong England side.
Goals from Onomah and Abrahman had the score at 2-0 to England before Chris Cadden pulled one back for the visitors, though England responded straight away through Solanke to seal the win.
A quiet opening saw the match burst into life with John Souttar and Greg Taylor doing well to turn England chances behind for successive corners.
Scotland cleared the second such corner, but only as far as Josh Onomah. He opened the scoring with a fine shot on the half volley, which nestled into the back of the net.
England could have made it two shortly after, as Tammy Abraham’s shot cannoned off the post.
Dom Thomas did well to evade the England defence midway through the first half. His effort, however, was straight into the arms of Angus Gunn in the England goal.
John Souttar denied England shortly after the half hour mark with a fine goal line clearance following a stramash in the box.
The teams went in at the half with England ahead by one.
Oliver McBurnie was brought on for the second half, taking the place of Oliver Burke who passed the captain’s armband to Souttar. England aimed to start the half quickly with Onomah’s shot from inside the box going high and wide.
England doubled their lead from the penalty spot after the referee judged that Souttar had caught Abraham’s foot in the area. Having won the penalty he duly rolled the ball past Fulton to make it 2-0.
Lewis Morgan looked to try and make a breakthrough for Scotland and was unfortunate not to get a shot away following a mauraduing run into the England box.
Scotland did manage to pull one back twelve minutes from time through Motherwell’s Chris Cadden.
McBurnie held the ball up and evaded the England defence before laying it off to Cadden who smashed it home.
England responded almost immediately however. Abraham beat the Scotland offside trap to go one-on-one with Fulton. He passed it to Solanke who tapped home into an empty net.
Ryan Fulton kept the scoreline at 3-1 with a fantastic diving save from what looked almost certain to be a fourth for England shortly before the final whistle.
Scotland, who beat the Netherlands 2-0 in their opening group match, now look to bounce back straight away against Latvia on Tuesday.
Scotland: Fulton (GK), Smith, Taylor, Souttar, McKenna, Burke (McBurnie, 45), Morgan, Mallan (Docherty 82’), Thomas (Williamson,67), Cadden, Campbell
Subs: Ruddy (GK), Kerr , Docherty, Miller, McCrorie
England: Gunn (GK), Alexander-Arnold, Walker-Peters, Cook, Gomez, Fry, Gray (Kenny, 70’), Onomah, Calvert-Lewin, Solanke (Lookman 83), Abraham (Harrison, 87)
Subs: Woodman (GK), Dowell, Davies, Tomori
Attendance: 20,126