The Arsenal winger, Lauren James, captained the England u-17 team in their 10-0 win over hosts Latvia in Riga to kick-start their 2017/18 campaign that could take them all the way to Uruguay for the FIFA u17 Women’s World Cup.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaPC1SkHhO5/
Arsenal u16 RTC player Paige Bailey-Gayle also started the game as the right winger and played the full 80 minutes (games at this level are 80 not 90 minutes long).
Development team players, Lia Cataldo and Ava Kuyken, were named as substitutes with Cataldo making her England debut.
Here is one of Lauren’s goals:
Lauren James Scores her 2nd Goal 2-0 England, UEFA Women's U-17 Championship #womensfootball #WU17EURO #Lionesses Video: Sportacentrs TV pic.twitter.com/hAlQqYPMBF
— WomensSoccerUnited (@WSUasa) October 14, 2017
The top two in each group and the five third-placed sides with the best record against the leading pair in their group will accompany top seeds Germany into the 28-team elite round.
Seven nations will eventually qualify for the finals to join Lithuania.
The tournament also acts as UEFA’s qualifier for the 2018 FIFA u17 Women’s World Cup which will be played from 13 November 1 to December in Uruguay. The three available berths will go to the two finalists and the winner of a play-off between the two beaten semi-finalists.
England qualified for the 2016 u17 WWC in Jordan and reached the quarter-finals where they lost 3-0 to Japan.