England win third straight Toulon Tournament title with comeback victory over Mexico

Winner: Kieran Dowell dances through the Mexico defence
AFP/Getty Images
Standard Sport9 June 2018

England Under-21s came from behind to beat Mexico and secure their third successive Toulon Tournament title.

After a successful summer for the England age groups in 2017, the Young Lions continued to show their ability in tournament football with a 2-1 win in Martigues.

Aidy Boothroyd's side came from behind to beat Scotland in the semi-final and did the same here after Roberto Alvarado put Mexico in front inside 80 seconds.

Dael Fry drew them level and Kieran Dowell completed the turnaround before the interval as England completed a hat-trick of Toulon successes.

On target: Roberto Alvarado scored for Mexico inside 80 seconds
AP

The two nations shared a goalless draw before both progressing to the last four from Group A - but there would be goals in the second meeting of the sides.

Alvarado had Mexico ahead with a little over a minute on the clock, turning home Eduardo Aguirre's cross with a scuffed finish.

The Young Lions were lucky that Uriel Antuna also failed to make telling contact when played through, the Manchester City youngster unable to double Mexico's lead with less than 12 minutes on the clock.

Freddie Woodman then kept out Francisco Cordova's drive, with England starting to enjoy more of the ball as the first-half wore on.

The equaliser came through fortuitous circumstances as Mexico goalkeeper Jose Hernandez failed to catch Jake Clarke-Salter's long throw-in, leaving Fry to finish into an empty goal.

Equaliser: Dael Fry scored a fortuitous leveller
AFP/Getty Images

England went in front when Eddie Nketiah crossed low for Everton's Dowell to coolly convert.

The second half did not start as lively as the first, the heat in southern France leading to drinks breaks in both halves as the players dealt with high temperatures even as the sun began to set towards the end of the game.

Mexico failed to rally in the closing stages as England saw out the final few minutes in mature fashion to continue their recent successes in international football.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in