England 1-1 Guniea

THERE was disappointment for England Under-20 manager Paul Simpson yesterday after his side conceded a comical own goal in the 1-1 draw against Guinea.

Captain Lewis Cook opened the scoring for England in the second half, only to see it cancelled out minutes later by Fikayo Tomori’s back pass from just inside his own half.

England kicked off their campaign with a convincing 3-0 victory over Argentina last Saturday but yesterday’s draw left Simpson bemused by the amount of chances his side spurned throughout the 90 minutes.

“I’m slightly disappointed that we only take one point out of the game,” said Simpson.

“But I think we’ve got to be honest, it’s a freaky goal that allowed Guinea to get the equaliser.

“We felt that we did a lot of good things, but against Argentina we were very clinical in the 18-yard box and today we weren’t.

“Our finishing was poor and unfortunately that gives you a problem. We missed opportunities and when it’s only 1-0, you always give the opposition a chance and unfortunately that was the case.”

With four points from two games, it puts England in with a good chance of reaching the knock-out stages as they enter Friday’s match with host nation South Korea.

Simpson said that he would have taken a win and a draw heading into the last group game, given how “unpredictable” this Guinea side can be.

“We expected a strong opposition, we knew they were an athletic side with good individual players and that it would be a tough game,” he revealed.

“They’re very unpredictable, they play off the cuff and they showed that they can cause problems.

“So we didn’t think this was going to be an easy game, it’s a really tough group and I think if someone had offered us four points after the two first games, we’d have taken that.

“I’m sure everyone thought if that was the case it would’ve been one from Argentina and three from Guinea, but that’s not the way it is and we’re still sitting here with four points.”