Wan Bissaka own-goal means last minute heartbreak for 10-man England

BeSoccer 5 years ago 5.6k |

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England slipped to defeat thanks to two late goals. GOAL

France got off to a winning start in European Under-21 Championship Group C with two goals in the last five minutes to defeat England.

England crumbled to a dramatic 2-1 defeat to France in their European Under-21 Championship opener on Tuesday after having Hamza Choudhury sent off after a terrible challenge on Jonathan Bamba.

The Young Lions impressed in the first half, looking by far the more promising of the two sides going forward, with Demarai Gray going close twice.

Nevertheless, England were fortunate to go into the break level, as Moussa Dembele had his 25th-minute penalty saved by Dean Henderson after the ball struck Jake Clarke-Salter's arm. England got a deserved opener just after the break and it was worth the wait.

Phil Foden slalomed between two defenders, then evaded a third before delicately placing his effort into the bottom-right corner.

But a moment of rashness from Choudhury saw the Leicester City youngster shown a straight red - after a VAR review - for a wild tackle on Jonathan Bamba and, although Houssem Aouar struck the post with the resulting spot-kick, the sending off gave France the advantage.

Jonathan Ikone found the bottom-right corner to level in the 89th minute, and Aaron Wan-Bissaka calamitously put the ball into his own net deep into stoppage time to give France the win.

England will in all likelihood need to win the last two games in their group to progress to the semi-finals, a group which also includes Romania and Croatia.

Both teams' next match is on Friday when England face Romania followed by France v Croatia.