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OL U19 3-1 Pagny-sur-Moselle

Jérémie Bréchet’s Olympique Lyonnais Under-19 team got back to winning ways on Sunday with a 3-1 victory at home to struggling AS Pagny-sur-Moselle at their OL Academy ground in Meyzieu.

After a goalless first half, it was Lyon who finally managed to force the issue and break the deadlock when Erawan Garnier was fouled in the box and Bryan Meyo converted from twelve yards.

However, Pagny fought back well and grabbed a 65th minute equaliser to set up a tense final twenty-five minutes during which both sides threatened to take the three points.

In the end, it was Lyon who prevailed with a pair of late goals from Emerson Pedro Vanga and Oliver Mvouama, the latter scoring in added time to wrap things up. Having lost three on the bounce, it was an important result for Lyon and was especially impressive considering that the team contained several debutants.

Lyon now sit in second place in the 2023-24 Championnat National U19 Group B table, but are still a massive eleven points behind runaway leaders Auxerre after twelve games of the season. Next weekend, Bréchet’s squad must make the trip up to Strasbourg, who sit just three points behind them in the table.

England U19 beat Japan in Marbella

Simon Rusk’s England U19 team gained a second win in as many matches when then narrowly beat Japan in Marbella on Saturday. They had recorded an emphatic 6-0 victory over Romania three days earlier but it was a much tighter affair this time out as they beat the Japanese youngsters by the odd goal in five.

It was a strong England line-up featuring Manchester United’s highly rated central midfielder Kobbie Mainoo wearing the number ten shirt, and his United team mate Elyh Harrison was on the bench.

England opened the scoring in the 13th minute with a penalty converted by Manchester City’s Jacob Wright after Millwall winger Romain Esse had been brought down. The lead was doubled just after the half hour mark with a goal from Tottenham forward Will Lankshear.

England had had much the better of the first period but Japan came out for the second half with renewed vigour and stormed back into the match with a quickfire pair of strikes from Shiogai Kento not long after the restart.

Mainoo was substituted for Jamie Donley in the 76th minute and it was the newly introduced Spurs forward who eventually grabbed the winner, firing home in the last minute of normal time to seal a 3-2 victory.

England U19 conclude their mini tour with a match against Mexico on Tuesday (21st November), which kicks off at 17:00 GMT.

Valencia Women 1-2 Athletic Club Women

Athletic Club de Bilbao’s women’s team earned an impressive away win against Valencia in the Liga F on Saturday evening. They bounced back from the previous weekend’s disappointing 2-1 home defeat to Madrid CF to beat Valencia by the same scoreline.

Clara Pinedo opened the scoring for Athletic Club in the 43rd minute with a penalty kick but the home side levelled the scores through Pauleta in the 68th minute. The game looked to be heading towards a draw until substitute Patricia Zugasti struck a winner with just four minutes or regulation time remaining.

The victory takes David Aznar’s team up to seventh place in the Liga F table with twelve points from their first nine matches. Next up they face league leaders Barcelona at home (26th November) and will attempt to become the first team to take any points from the reigning champions this season.

Serbia U21 0-3 England U21

England‘s Under-21 selection beat their Serbian counterparts 3-0 in front of a crowd of around 1,200 at the TSC Arena in Bačka Topola to boost their chances of automatic qualification for the 2025 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, which is to be held in Slovakia.

England got off to a flying start thanks to Manchester City midfielder James McAtee, who is currently plying his trade on-loan at Sheffield United. He bagged an early brace of goals to quell the home fans and calm any England nerves.

The scoreline stayed at 2-0 to the visitors until ten minutes into the second half when Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott struck from range to put the result beyond doubt. England saw out the game to complete an emphatic double over the Serbs, who they had beaten 9-1 at The City Ground back in October.

Putting the pressure on Ukraine

The result leaves coach Lee Carsley’s England U21 team sitting in second place in qualification Group F after four matches. They are three points behind leaders Ukraine, who beat Luxembourg 4-0 the previous day. Only the top team will progress automatically to the finals. The second placed team will enter the play-offs.

England’s next fixture is against Northern Ireland at Goodison Park on Tuesday 21st November 2023. The Irish currently sit bottom of Group F with one win and three defeats from their opening four matches, so on paper it looks like it should be another straightforward win for Carsley’s boys.

It looks set to be a straight race between England and Ukraine for top spot in the group. The decisive match could well be Ukraine’s visit to England in October next year in the penultimate round of fixtures. England were narrowly beaten when they played their ‘away’ fixture against Ukraine last month, losing 3-2 with the winner coming deep into stoppage time. That match took place in Košice, Slovakia, due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Late rally sees off spirited Dijon

Olympique Lyonnais Women produced a fine second half display to complete a fight-back against Dijon and secure a 4-1 win in a Friday night Division 1 clash at the Groupama OL Training Center.

Perhaps tiredness from the exertions of their midweek trip to Prague and the 9-0 thumping of Slavia Prague was to blame for Lyon’s slow start and they found themselves a goal behind when Maria Diaz put Dijon ahead in the 25th minute. However, that goal acted as a wake-up call and Lyon struck back nine minutes later through right-back Alice Sombath.

Nevertheless, struggling Dijon, who are still in search of their first win of the season, refused to roll over and the deadlock lasted until the interval and well into the second period.

Lyon coach Sonia Bompastor introduced a few of the big guns to try to force the issue, with Danielle Van de Donk and Lindsey Horan entering the fray at half time and Sara Daebritz and Ada Hegerberg coming off the bench in the 63rd minute.

Eventually they found a breakthrough courtesy of Melchie Dumornay on 70 minutes and Hegerberg made it 3-1 three minutes later. With Dijon’s spirit finally broken, Sara Daebritz completed the scoring with a minute of normal time remaining.

Lyon therefore maintained their 100% record in Division 1, with eight wins from eight games and are six points clear of Paris FC, although the Parisians now have a game in hand.

England lose to Brazil but still win group

England’s Under-17 team suffered a 2-1 defeat to their Brazilian counterparts in their final first round match at the FIFA U17 World Cup in Indonesia. However, the result was sufficient to see them hold onto top spot in Group C and progress to the knockout stages as group winners.

Brazil took the lead shortly before half time at the 82,000 capacity Jakarta International Stadium. The ball broke free to Kaua Elias inside the England box and the forward lashed home past a helpless Tommy Setford in the England goal.

The crowd of 15,171 was the largest of the tournament so far for a game not involving the hosts, and they witnessed Brazil doubling their advantage in the 54th minute through defender Mata Da.

A two goal lead meant that Brazil had leapfrogged England at the top of the group on goal difference. The Young Lions needed to find a response and they did so when Manchester City’s Joel Ndala scored from the penalty spot in the 71st minute.

Small margins separate the top three

Thereafter, the score remained the same and Iran’s 5-0 win over the hapless New Caledonians in the other Group C fixture meant that England, Brazil and Iran all finished level on six points.

Goal difference was the tie breaker and England’s +10 was one better than Brazil’s and five clear of Iran. However, all three teams will go through to the Round of Sixteen as Iran are one of the best third placed sides.

Ryan Garry’s England U17 team had looked impressive in beating New Caledonia 10-0 and Iran 2-1 in their opening matches, so this result is only a minor setback. Winning the group means that they will remain in Jakarta and will face the third placed team from Group A or B in the next round. That means either the hosts, Indonesia, or Uzbekistan.

From a Manchester United perspective, defensive midfielder Finley McAllister is the only club representative in this England squad. He came off the bench with half an hour remaining in the opening game against New Caledonia and scored the tenth goal in stoppage time.

He didn’t feature in the match against Iran but he was in the starting line up versus Brazil and was replaced by Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly just after the hour mark.

England 2-0 Malta

England beat Malta 2-0 at Wembley Stadium to maintain their unbeaten record in UEFA Euro 2024 Qualification Group C and move onto nineteen points at the top of the table with one match remaining.

Their qualification for the finals had already been secured courtesy of a 3-1 win against Italy in October, so this match was all about securing maximum points in order to ensure a place in the pot of top seeds ahead of next month’s draw.

Early action at both ends

Malta gave their hosts an early scare with a shot that flew just past Jordan Pickford’s post inside the first minute of the match, but England were soon in the ascendancy and got the rub of the green when taking the lead in the eighth minute.

Phil Foden was lightning quick in bursting into the Maltese box and his cut-back cannoned off the feet of defender Enrico Pepe for an own goal with the visiting goalkeeper unable to get enough of his gloves behind the ball to prevent it entering his net.

Penalty appeal

However, England were unable to build on their advantage and failed to carve out many more clear cut opportunities during the first half. The closest they came to doubling their lead was when captain Harry Kane latched onto a through ball and was brought to ground inside the area by the diving goalkeeper, Henry Bonello.

At first glance it looked like a stonewall penalty, but the referee thought differently and opted to show Kane a yellow card for diving. Replays suggested that Kane had moved his foot towards the oncoming ‘keeper to ensure contact, so perhaps a penalty would have been a little harsh, but so was a yellow card as he could hardly have stayed upright following the contact.

Fresh legs after the interval

England manager Gareth Southgate introduced Kyle Walker and Bukayo Saka for the second half in order to shake things up a bit but they were still unable to make much headway against a stubborn Maltese defence. It wasn’t until the 75th minute when a slick passing move ended with Saka teeing up Kane that the England captain was able to finally make it 2-0.

England were celebrating again a minute later when substitute Declan Rice scored with a fine strike from the edge of the box, but it was somewhat harshly ruled out for offside after a VAR check with Kane adjudged to be in the goalkeeper’s line of vision. The only other point of note was an England debut for Chelsea’s Cole Palmer, who came on for Marcus Rashford in the 61st minute.

England conclude their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign with a trip to North Macedonia on Monday the 20th of November. North Macedonia are now out of the competition, having been beaten 5-2 in Italy whilst England were seeing off Malta.

England lose to Italy in U20 Elite League

The England men’s Under-20 team suffered a third defeat in as many matches in their 2023-24 Elite League fixture against a strong Italy side at the Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster. The 0-3 defeat leaves them stuck at the bottom of the ten team table, whereas the Italians top the standings with ten points.

Italy opened the scoring in the 37th minute through Luis Hasa of Juventus but the result remained in the balance until the closing stages when a quickfire pair of strikes from Filippo Missori of Sassuolo and a second from Hasa sealed the win and wrapped up the three points for the visitors.

England Under-20 team boss Ben Futcher takes his charges to Germany on Monday, where they will meet their German counterparts in another Elite League clash at the Jahnstadion Regensburg.

You can find a full match report on the England Football website.

Doncaster football stadium where England U20 lost to Italy (2023).
Doncaster: from the football stadium to the racecourse (aerial 2014) by Chris is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0

Jake O’Brien – Player Profile

Born in Cork in 2001, Jake O’Brien is a centre-back who represents the Republic of Ireland national team at Under-21 level and currently plies his trade at Olympique Lyonnais in Ligue 1 in France. He is notable for being one of the first players to have his career trajectory significantly shaped by American businessman John Textor’s multi-club ownership project.

O’Brien began his career with his local club, Cork City, in the League of Ireland, but he hadn’t made many appearances for the ‘Rebel Army’ before he attracted the attention of scouts from Crystal Palace in the English Premier League and he joined them on loan in February 2021.

Following an impressive few months playing for Palace’s U23 team in the Premier League 2 Division 2, the then twenty-year-old defender made the move permanent in August 2021, the same month in which Textor bought his 40% share of the Crystal Palace ownership.

An Eagle out on loan

O’Brien spent the first half of the 2021-22 campaign back with Palace’s U23s before moving on loan to Swindon Town in the January transfer window, where he experienced his first taste of senior English football. He went straight into the Robins’ first team and helped them to a sixth place finish in League Two before suffering play-off heartbreak at the hands of Port Vale in a second-leg penalty shootout.

Meanwhile, Textor had acquired control of Belgian second division club R.W.D. Molenbeek and he wasted no time in reinforcing them as soon as the summer 2022 transfer window opened. Jake O’Brien was sent there on a season-long loan, alongside fellow Palace prospect Luke Plange, and a plethora of players from Textor’s other club, Botafogo.

That move proved to be the making of O’Brien. He was virtually ever-present as RWDM stormed to the Challenger Pro League title and promotion to the top flight. He scored the first three goals of his professional career and even made the divisional team of the season alongside three of his club mates, including Kylian Hazard, brother of Eden.

A Textor book transfer

Upon the conclusion of O’Brien’s loan period in Belgium in the summer of 2023, it was clear that he was ready to step up a level, but would that be back in England with Crystal Palace or elsewhere? It so happened that John Textor had been shopping for football clubs again and had recently added Lyon to his portfolio. They were in need of reinforcements in the centre-back department and so a deal was agreed to take the Irishman to France for a fee of €1 million.

Initially O’Brien was expected to be a squad player at Lyon, behind the likes of Dejan Lovren, Duje Ćaleta-Car and Sinaly Diomandé in the pecking order for a starting berth in defence. He didn’t feature at all under Laurent Blanc in the opening rounds of the season but was drafted straight into the team when Fabio Grosso replaced Blanc at the helm.

His debut came in a 2-0 defeat at Reims, during which O’Brien earned plaudits for his personal performance despite his team’s struggles. He became only the second Irish player to represent Olympique Lyonnais, following in the footsteps of his fellow centre-back Mick McCarthy. Grosso continued to place his faith in the young defender and retained him in the team for the following matches as Lyon sought their first win of the campaign.

O’Brien instantly looked at home playing at this level and is one of the few bright spots of Lyon’s season so far. Hopefully he’ll stick around in the city for longer than McCarthy did, and will help to drag the team away from the relegation zone as the season progresses.

Dejan Lovren – Player Profile

Croatian centre-back Dejan Lovren is one of four players in the current Lyon squad to have recently returned to the club for a second spell. (The other three being Alexandre Lacazette, Corentin Tolisso and Rémy Riou). Lovren re-joined Lyon in January 2023 for a fee of €2 million from Zenit St Petersburg, having previously worn the colours between 2010 and 2013.

Now aged 34, and having won honours with a plethora of top clubs during his distinguished career, Lovren is one of the most experienced and decorated players in the Lyon squad. After almost ten years away, his return midway through the 2022-23 campaign coincided with an upturn in form for Lyon as he immediately re-established himself as a mainstay of the defence.

He’s a natural leader and, when fit, one of the first names on the team sheet. His calming presence at the back was sorely missed when a muscle injury kept him out of the first seven games of the 2023-24 season and the team got off to a dreadful start in is absence.

Growing up as a refugee

Lovren was born in what is now Bosnia, to a Bosnian Croat family in 1989. They, like many others, were displaced from their homeland when war broke out in 1992 and they fled by car to Bavaria, Germany, where his grandfather was working. It was a traumatic time for his family and he opened up about it in a 2017 documentary for LFC TV. After seven years, their permission to remain in Germany expired and the family moved to Croatia and settled in the town of Karlovac, famed for its brewery.

Dejan Lovren eventually found his way into the youth system of Dinamo Zagreb and he made his debut for them in a Prva HNL (top division) match against NK Varteks in May 2006, a couple of months shy of his seventeenth birthday. He wouldn’t feature again for Dinamo for a couple of years as he spent the next two seasons on loan at Inter Zaprešić. They won the Druga HNL (second division) during his first season there (2006-07) but struggled in the Prva HNL the following campaign.

Lovren had shown enough promise by now to be integrated into the Dinamo first team squad for the 2008-09 season and he grabbed the opportunity with both hands, playing 38 times across all competitions and scoring three goals as Dinamo won the league and cup double.

International recognition and a big move

He started the following season in fine form and was soon handed his first international cap by Croatia manager Slaven Bilić. By now scouts from around Europe were monitoring his progress and it was Claude Puel who won the race for his signature, bringing him to Lyon for €9 million in January 2010.

Now aged twenty, Dejan Lovren adapted well to life in France and soon became a regular in Lyon’s back four. Lyon’s seven year domination of Ligue 1 had recently come to an end and they finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 3rd in Lovren’s first spell at the club. The highlight was a Coupe de France win in 2012 when Lyon beat Quevilly 1-0 in the final at the Stade de France at the end of Rémi Garde’s first season as manager.

Garde it was who sanctioned the sale of Lovren to Premier League team Southampton in the summer of 2013, bringing to an end the Croatian’s three and a half year stay in Lyon. The English club paid €10 million to secure his services.

Steady progress in England

Lovren’s stay on the south coast was brief. He played just one season for the Saints but gained many plaudits for his accomplished defensive work as they exceeded all expectations to finish 8th in the table. That summer, he joined team mates Rickie Lambert and Adam Lallana in moving to Liverpool, his value having risen to £20 million in the space of twelve months.

Dejan Lovren enjoyed perhaps the best years of his career on Merseyside, although the Reds struggled during his first eighteen months at the club. It was not until Jürgen Klopp replaced Brendan Rogers at the helm in October 2015 that their fortunes began to improve. They made it to two finals at the end of that season, but lost them both. A knee injury kept Lovren out of the League Cup final penalty shoot-out defeat to Manchester City, but he played the full ninety minutes as Liverpool lost 3-1 to Sevilla in the UEFA Europa League final in Basel.

A couple of fourth place finishes followed in successive Premier League seasons before they reached another European final in 2018. This time it was the Champions League and Liverpool faced Real Madrid at the Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Kyiv. Lovren again played a full part, but the result was the same, another 3-1 defeat to Spanish opposition. The match will be remembered for a stunning overhead kick goal by Gareth Bale and some erratic goalkeeping by Liverpool’s stand-in goalkeeper Loris Karius.

Continental and domestic glory

Their disappointment was to be short-lived, however, as they went one better the following season, beating Tottenham 2-0 in the UEFA Champions League final in Madrid. Lovren finally got his hands on European football’s most prized club medal, although he was an unused substitute in the final itself. In fact, his whole 2018-19 season was beset by injury and he only featured thirteen times in the league as Liverpool pushed Manchester City all the way in the title race, eventually finishing second on 97 points, one behind the champions.

Fitness was a continuing problem for Lovren throughout Liverpool’s relentless march to the Premier League title in the COVID disrupted 2019-20 season. However, he did feature often enough to earn a winners’ medal, becoming the first Croatian to lift the English Premier League trophy. That brought down the curtain on his time in England and he was sold to Zenit St Petersburg for €12 million in the summer.

Premier Liga domination

In terms of trophies, Lovren’s time in Russia was an unbridled success. He picked up his first one on his debut, a 2-1 win against Lokomotiv Moscow in the Russian Super Cup. His second was the Premier Liga title at the end of his inaugural season with Zenit. He even took over the club captaincy during the second half of the campaign, although he missed the last few games of the season through injury.

Dejan Lovren collected a second Super Cup in the 2021 pre-season and retained the captain’s armband for the successful defence of their league title, although he once again missed the end of the season due to one of his increasingly frequent injuries. He was back to full fitness for the start of the 2022-23 campaign, but remained on the bench as his team mates scooped a third successive Super Cup win with a thumping 4-0 victory over Spartak Moscow in the season’s curtain raiser.

The first half of the 2022-23 Premier Liga saw Lovren’s most consistent period at Zenit. Finally free of any injury worries, he was almost ever-present and skippered the team to a commanding lead at the top of the table as they entered the long winter break. He left for Lyon during that transfer window, but his erstwhile team mates went on to secure the title and earn him a third Premier Liga medal.

National team stalwart

Dejan Lovren enjoyed a long and distinguished career with the Croatian national team. He earned 78 caps and scored five times for them over the course of thirteen years, before retiring from international duty after the 2022 World Cup.

The highlights were undoubtedly Croatia’s runs to the latter stages of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup tournaments. At the 2018 finals in Russia, he played in every match as Croatia made it all the way to the final at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. Having overcome Argentina, Denmark, the hosts and England en route to the final they eventually succumbed 4-2 to an irrepressible French team.

Four years later, they were at it again in Qatar as what remained of Croatia’s golden generation took one more shot at glory. This time Lovren was ever-present as they sauntered through the group and dispatched Japan and Brazil on penalties before coming unstuck against the eventual winners, Argentina, in the semi-finals. And with that he bowed out from the international scene, having been rested for the Third Place Play-off win over Morocco that secured a bronze medal.