Saturday 20 May 2017, 10:22

England triumph to end 20 years of hurt

  • England win first FIFA U-20 World Cup game since 1997, ending record run

  • Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Adam Armstrong and Dominic Solanke seal 3-0 win

  • Argentina’s Lautaro Martinez picks up red card after Video Assistant Referee (VAR) referral

England picked up their first FIFA U-20 World Cup victory for 20 years, beating Argentina 3-0, to end a tournament record of 17 games without a win and kick off their Korea Republic 2017 campaign in style.

It was a backs against the wall job for the Three Lions right from the outset, as Argentina looked slick and purposeful, peaking when Santiago Colombatto’s header clipped the top of the bar.

But moments later, heavily against the run of play, Dominic Calvert-Lewin struck with a sensational diving header at the far post to stun the South Americans from Kieran Dowell’s whipped cross. The Everton man almost produced a carbon copy in the second period too, but fired over.

By then though, England were already two to the good, after Adam Armstrong converted another Dowell pass to slam home at the near post. The first instance of using VAR in the tournament then saw Lautaro Martinez shown a red card for catching Fikayo Tomori with an elbow, as La Albiceleste finished with ten men. Dominic Solanke slotted home a stoppage-time penalty to add gloss to the win.