Academy of Football defender Airidas Golambeckis was a second-half substitute as England U19s recorded an emphatic 7-0 win over Wales at the La Quinta Football Centre in Spain on Tuesday.
Four of Will Antwi’s side’s goals came in the opening 55 minutes, before three further strikes followed after our 17-year-old defender’s introduction with 23 minutes remaining.
Divine Mukasa opened the scoring for the Young Lions with just under half-an-hour played, before Trey Nyoni doubled England’s advantage.
Jesse Derry made it 3-0 shortly before half-time, with Arsenal’s Max Dowman firing home a fourth in the 55th minute.
Our U21s captain was then summoned from the bench to earn his fourth U19s cap, and moments after his introduction, Mikey Moore, who scored a hat-trick in the 4-1 win over Belgium on Saturday, got in on the act to make it five, and then Shim Mheuka grabbed England’s sixth.
And there was still time for Sunderland’s Chris Rigg to squeeze in number seven to round off a devastating attacking display by the Young Lions, who will head into next month’s UEFA U19 European Championship qualifiers full of confidence.
In UEFA European U21 Championship qualifying on Tuesday evening, Academy defender Michael Forbes wore the captain’s armband as Northern Ireland U21s had their hearts broken by Germany in Group F.
Centre-back Forbes, currently on loan at Kevin Nolan’s Northampton Town in EFL League One, led his country at The Oval in Belfast, where Northern Ireland lost 2-1 to two late goals – less than 24 hours after Callum Marshall and the seniors had been edged 1-0 by Germany in FIFA World Cup qualifying at Windsor Park.
Norwich City’s Ruairi McConville put Northern Ireland U21s in front inside four minutes, only for Assan Ouédraogo of RB Leipzig and a penalty converted by Dženan Pejčinović of Wolfsburg seven minutes from full-time to deny them a famous victory.
Greece top Group F with a perfect three wins from three after triumphing 1-0 in Latvia earlier on Tuesday, with Georgia moving above Northern Ireland into third after winning 5-0 in Malta.
Also in action for Northern Ireland's youth team was West Ham United U18s captain Callum Leacock. The 17-year-old played the full 90 minutes for the U19s against Switzerland in their last friendly fixture of their camp, a 2-2 draw in Marbella.
Switzerland's free scoring U19s, who had scored a combined eight goals in their previous two games against Wales and France, took the lead in first half stoppage time through Hoffenheim's Zidan Tairi. Leacock's side then turned the tie around with second half goals from Glenavon's Paul McGovern and Everton's Braiden Graham, before Luzern substitute Andrej Vasovic equalised from the penalty spot.
Playing a year above his age group with 2007-born players, Leacock and his U19s teammates will next convene for international duty in UEFA U19 European qualifiers in November where they will face Malta, Azerbaijan and Czechia for a place in the elite round in spring 2026.
Leacock will now return to Chadwell Heath to prepare for West Ham United U18s' return to Premier League South action where he will lead the team against Aston Villa.
