Jamal Musiala scores first goal as England thrash Albania in final Under-21s Euros qualifier

UEFA Under 21 Championship Qualifier - England v Albania
Action Images via Reuters
Alex Young @alexwsyoung17 November 2020

Jamal Musiala made an immediate impact on his full England Under-21s debut as Albania were brushed aside on Tuesday.

The Young Lions completed qualification for March’s Euros unbeaten with five goals at Molineux, and Bayern Munich youngster Musiala bagged one.

Eddie Nketiah netted a second-half brace and also missed a late penalty after Callum Hudson-Odoi and James Justin put England in charge.

They now await next month's group stage draw ahead of the first part of the tournament in March with the knockout phase held in May and June.

Boss Aidy Boothroyd knows at least 15 of the players who, in an ideal world, he will take to Hungary and Slovenia and Musiala, who made his debut against Andorra on Friday, will surely join them.

England U21 v Albania U21 - UEFA Euro Under 21 Qualifier
Getty Images

The 17-year-old, born in Stuttgart, has been involved in an international tug-of-war with Germany but appears to be focused on England and the Three Lions have another gem.

He was too good for wretched Albania who had a slim chance of qualifying as one of the five best runners-up but those hopes were virtually ended after just four minutes.

Lloyd Kelly, on the edge of his own box, curled a fine pass to Hudson-Odoi on the left and the Chelsea forward advanced unopposed.

He cut inside and, despite his shot lacking serious power, Marco Molla let the ball slip through his fingers.

More sloppy defending allowed Nketiah a couple of openings but England did not need to wait long for a second.

Debutant Lee Buchanan skipped down the left, his cross was missed by Elion Sota and Justin's classy finish doubled the lead after 26 minutes.

Albania, who finish third in Group Three, were poor and any rare attack failed to trouble the hosts, who made it 3-0 nine minutes before the break.

England U21 v Albania U21 - UEFA Euro Under 21 Qualifying - Group 3 - Molineux
PA

Musiala had already outlined his class by breezing past his opponents and, this time, he sliced through Albania by swapping passes with Oliver Skipp to go clean through and beat Molla.

Arsenal's Nketiah was denied a fourth by an offside call as England outgunned the visitors.

Josef Bursik did need to save Albion Marku's deflected effort but the Young Lions made it 4-0 seven minutes after the break.

Angelo Ndrecka made a mess of trying to clear Hudson-Odoi's cross and record scorer Nketiah pounced to fire in his 15th goal for the Under-21s through Molla's legs.

Curtis Jones missed the chance to add a fifth when he headed over from six yards and Nketiah should have wrapped up the scoring with 10 minutes left.

He was clattered by Molla in the box yet the goalkeeper guessed correctly to parry the striker's penalty.

But Nketiah did get his second four minutes from time when he cut in from the left and found the bottom corner.

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