Spurs international watch: Another goal for youngster | OneFootball

On Friday afternoon, England U20’s were in elite U20 league action, as they faced Portugal away from home. For this game, Tottenham Hotspur youngsters Ashley Phillips – currently on loan at Stoke City – and Dane Scarlett, whom has trained with the England U21s this week, both started the game.

After just seven minutes of the game, Scarlett gave England the lead, though Portugal equalised just after the half hour mark. Those two strikes would prove to be the only ones of the game, as the sides played out a 1-1 draw.

As for the Spurs youngsters themselves, Phillips played the whole 90 minutes, whilst Scarlett played for an hour. His goal was his ninth for the England U20s, and 26th overall goal for England age groups – having scored once for England U15s, twice for England U16s, 12 in just 14 games for England U19, and twice in four games for the England U21 side.

He will be hoping he will do enough to push up to the U21 squad for the European Championships this summer, having already got a taste for things there – albeit not playing at Spurs is unlikely to help his cause in that respect. Still, another goal won’t have done his chances any harm at all.

If the likes of Liam Delap are in the senior squad, that will give him even more chance to stake his claim. It is a shame that his goal for the U21s in the autumn came when U21s manager Lee Carsley, who was away as interim manager of the senior side, but again, it won’t have done too much harm.

Likewise for Phillips, whom is playing every week for Stoke City in the Championship – albeit a struggling side. There are a number of second tier players in the current U21 squad, so he will be thinking why not if he continues to play every week for Stoke – and puts in the performances to go along with it. He has played 2362 minutes in the Championship so far this campaign.

In the meantime, next up for England U20s is another elite league fixture, this time at home to Switzerland. As it stands, England are on top of the table with 15 points from seven games, though Germany have the same amount of points and a game in hand, so let’s see.

As a quick sidenote: Dominic Solanke got some handy rest, as he remained an unused substitute during England's 2-0 win over Albania in Thomas Tuchel's first game in charge.