Report: England WU20s 0-1 Japan
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The Young Lionesses were narrowly beaten by Japan in Spain
England women under-20s fell to a 1-0 loss to Japan at the Murcia Stadium in Spain on Tuesday afternoon.
After a quiet opening half hour, England came close to breaking the deadlock as clever play between Lola Brown and Erica Parkinson saw the latter find space for an effort which hit the crossbar.
Parkinson had another good opportunity to open the scoring for the Young Lionesses six minutes later, firing over the frame of the goal after a smart cutback from Ria Bose.
Japan almost scored late in the first half as Amiru Tsuji raced through on goal, but rolled her effort wide of the target.
It was Japan who had the better of a largely quiet second half as Natsumi Tago fired an early attempt wide before Katie Cox was called into action to save a shot from distance.
However, England thought they had taken the lead with 18 minutes to go as Japan failed to deal with a dangerous cross from Brown, leading to the ball dropping for substitute Denny Draper from close range, but she couldn’t find the target.
With just two minutes left to play, Japan found the decisive goal as a corner was headed in by Mitsuki Ota for the game’s only goal.
England travel to Poland for the FIFA U20 Women's World Cup in September 2026, and they have been drawn in Group B for September’s tournament alongside Brazil, Tanzania and Canada.
England: 1 Katie Cox (Chelsea), 2 Ria Bose (West Ham United), 3 Rachel Maltby (Aston Villa), 4 Laila Harbert (Arsenal), 5 Chloe Paxton (Sunderland), 6 Cecily Wellesley-Smith (Arsenal, on loan to FC Rosengård), 7 Vivienne Lia (Arsenal, on loan to Hammarby), 8 May Cruft (Rangers), 9 Princess Ademiluyi (Gotham City), 10 Erica Parkinson (Valadares Gaia), 11 Lola Brown (Chelsea) (C)
Substitutes: 14 Lexi Potter (Chelsea) on for Cruft 63, 15 Zara Shaw (Liverpool) on for Paxton 63, 18 Vera Jones (Chelsea) on for Parkinson 63, 19 Denny Draper (Leicester City) on for Ademiluyi 63, 24 Jessie Gale (Arsenal) for Lia 83, 25 Chloe Sarwie (Chelsea) on for Maltby 71
Substitutes not used: 13 Kaiya Jota (Stanford University), 16 Lucy Newell (Manchester United), 17 Chloe Hylton (Carolina Ascent), 20 Lily Murphy (Manchester City), 21 Jessica Anderson (Manchester United), 22 Eve Annets (Manchester City), 23 Ava Baker (Birmingham City), 26 Lily Dent (Brighton & Hove Albion)
Head coach: Lydia Bedford
