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Posted by Rob Shepherd on Friday, June 9, 2017

The young English lions have done the impossible and are through to the final of the FIFA U-20 World Cup. We take a look at who, where and when they will be playing. We also bring you the latest rugby and football news and gossip.

England’s Young Football Stars in World Cup Final

I never thought I would be able to write a headline that had the words “England”, “World Cup” and “final” together but yes, it’s true! On Sunday, the England under 20 team will play Venezuela in the under 20’s World Cup final in the Suwon World Cup Stadium in South Korea.

Paul Simpson’s England team produced a brilliant second half performance as they came from a goal down to beat Italy 1-3 and become the first men’s team to reach any World Cup final since the infamous senior side in 1966.

It was a resolute performance from the young lions who couldn’t have wished for a worse start when Juventus winger Riccardo Orsolini scored within the first two minutes. England continued to search for the equaliser but it was the performance after the break that won this tie for England and booked their place in the World Cup final.

Liverpool fans will be delighted at how well their contingent did in this game. Solanke, who will be joining Liverpool from Chelsea on the 1st of July showed his potential with two goals and substitute Ojo looks a real exciting potential.

The Route to the Final: England

England impressively won their group without defeat, this is when you factor in the fact that hosts South Korea and six-time winner, Argentina were also in England’s group. Whipping boys Guinea made up the numbers.

In the first game England performed a miracle! They went into the game with much fancied Argentina with an awful record, they hadn’t won a FIFA U-20 World Cup game for 20 years. A 0-3 win against Argentina was an amazing.

England’s second game saw a disappointing 1-1 draw with minnows, Guinea – albeit from a fortunate own goal. A 1-0 win against hosts South Korea secured their progression to the last 16. In the game, a Kieran Dowell goal ensured England finished top of their group.

In the round of 16 against Costa Rica, Ademola Lookman scored twice and England survived a nervy finish to ensure they reached the last eight. Mexico posed a stern test but a Dominic Solanke goal was enough to see the Lions would be meeting Italy in the semi-finals.

When are the Finals On?

The final is held this Sunday at 1pm at the Suwon World Cup Stadium in South Korea. British Eurosport 2 will be showing live coverage of the match.

What are the Odds to Lift the Trophy?

England are 4/6 favourites with Venezuela slight underdogs at 11/10 at time of writing.

Good luck England!

Rugby News:

British & Irish Lions Tour of New Zealand

Well if there was any doubt that this was not going to be the toughest tour in Rugby that has been blasted away after the first game;

NEW ZEALAND PROVINCIAL BARBARIANS 7 – 13 THE BRITISH & IRISH LIONS

A tight game where the lions were sluggish, jet lag?? And were rattled by the attacking ferocity of the home team. The English winger Anthony Watson saved the day with a try in the and utter embarrassment with a try on his Lions debut in the 51st Minute. The try was converted by another Englishmen Owen Farrell who came on at Fly Half to replace Johnny Sexton, who had a poor game by his standards.

The Lions have been slaughtered in the New Zealand Press all week following their narrow victory against a semi-professional team, with Warren Gatland taking much flak and especially “warren ball” his style of play.

There was no let up and the week got a lot worse with the Lions suffering defeat at the hands of the “weakest Super 12 Side”.

Blues 22 British & Irish Lions 16 – The Lions started brightly but were soon behind to the blues after a Rieko Ioane try against the run of play. The Lions came back strongly with a CJ Stander try and were looking to take a lead into halftime, but Sonny Bill Williams had other ideas grabbing an opportunist try in injury time.

The second half will be one the Lions and Liam Williams will want to forget after he was yellow carded for taking his man in the air in two quick successions.

Somehow the lions regained the lead and ascendancy through two Leigh Halfpenny penalties but then Ihaia West scored an awesome try which gave the blues an historic win.

Honestly even though the Lions Scrum and Line outs were superior on the day the blues attacking intent through their midfield and backs,made them the better team.

The next game is against currently the best Super 12 side, Crusaders and is even more ominous as the All Blacks have taken the unprecedented step of releasing their test players to represent their club sides for the Lions clashes, there will be 7 test players in the Crusaders squad.

So, will the Lions step up to the plate and produce quality rugby against the Crusaders, to silence the NZ press? I have a feeling whatever happens the Press of this rugby mad nation will never fall silent over the Lions.

U20 World Cup (rugby)

The tenth World Rugby Under 20 Championship is currently taking place In Georgia with 12 Nations participating. England, three times winners and the reigning champions have played twice so far defeating Samoa 74 – 17 and Wales on the 4th June 34-22.

Some of the other results from the 2nd pool matches were;

NEW ZEALAND U20 68 (HT 39-21) 26 ITALY U20

SOUTH AFRICA U20 38 (HT 19-7) 14 GEORGIA U20

IRELAND U20 28 (HT 10-12) 32 SCOTLAND U20

England beat Australia 22 -19 in the final pool game with Ibitoye showing his jedi levitation like skills as he scored the winning try. England now face South Africa in the Semi-finals.

Footy Gossip and News

Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney is threatening to see out his contract and remain at Manchester United. In all honesty, I say threatening but none of the papers are reporting it in that tone for sure. I just feel he is just being a mercenary and justifying Mourinho’s stance of not playing him, the old Rooney of old would have played for nothing to get game time, so running down his £300,000 a week by sitting on the bench just sums up modern day football – just my tuppence worth!

Moyes has been hit with a £30,000 fine for threatening to slap a female reporter. Although the woman didn’t complain, the FA considered his remarks to be worthy of punishment. Speaking at a news conference on 3 April after the incident came to light, he said: “It was in the heat of the moment. I deeply regret the comments I made.

“That’s certainly not the person I am. I’ve accepted the mistake. I spoke to the BBC reporter, who accepted my apology.”

Manchester United are set to make a new £60m offer for Real Madrid’s 24-year-old striker Alvaro Morata say the Guardian. This is likely to be the story rumbling for the next few days now the Griezmann transfer looks unlikely.

Saints legend Matt le Tissier has criticised Liverpool over their pursuit of Van Dijk. Liverpool also had to issue a humiliating public announcement and apology over their chase for Van Dijk’s signature.