Arsenal trio Ethan Nwaneri, Myles Lewis-Skelly, and Tommy Setford are all away with the England u19s over the international break, but only Nwaneri was in the starting lineup for Wednesday’s game against Lithuania.
The England u19s are playing a round of Euro 2025 qualifiers over the current break, and this was the first of three group games for the Young Lions.
With such a short group stage, there was no room for error, so it was vital that the team got off to a winning start. Nwaneri was a big reason why they achieved that.
Just over five minutes into the match, Nwaneri spotted an opening after Tyrique George lifted a cross into the penalty area.
Stealing in ahead of a Lithuania defender, the midfielder headed a well-placed effort into the bottom corner of the net for 1-0.
🏴U19 are facing 🇱🇹 & have just gone 1-0 up after 6 mins via Ethan Nwaneri
Kiano Dyer threads into Leo Black, who receives+progresses cleanly ~ finds Tyrique George out wide, who creates separation w ease+gets a dangerous cross in ~optimal timing of burst+clean header by Nwaneri pic.twitter.com/os9wgchvFH— The Next Wave (@_TheNextWave_) November 13, 2024
Nwaneri had a chance to make it 2-0 later in the game, but he couldn’t quite turn in a deflected shot from Jesse Derry.
Lewis-Skelly came on as a substitute for the final 19 minutes, and England held out for a 1-0 victory and their first three points of qualifying.
Nwaneri now has five goals and an assist in seven games for the England u19s, though this was his first appearance and goal in a competitive fixture.
England will face Bulgaria and Belgium in their other two games as part of this week-long group stage.
The top-two teams will guarantee progression to the next round of qualifiers, with just one best third-placed team progressing from the 13 groups.
