Bulgaria U19 lost 1:2 to England in a friendly match played in Wycombe.
England were utterly dominant in the first half and took the lead through Marcus Edwards.
A slick passing move saw captain Tom Davies square the ball to Edwards from the right, who hammered home with his weaker right foot in the ninth minute.
Bulgaria should have equalised on 23 minutes after capitalising on a lapse from keeper Aynsley Pears, however Valentin Yoskov’s shot was too weak and went straight at defender Cameron Humphreys, who was covering on the goal-line.
Our team levelled the game on 70 minutes though, after a superb through ball by Petar Genchev found the feet of Ivanov inside the area with only half-time substitute Will Mannion in the England goal to beat, and the Bulgaria forward slotted the ball in the bottom right hand corner.
Even though Bulgaria was exceptionally well organized in defending, Sterling won the game for England in the additional time with the last kick of the match, meeting a superb lofted free-kick into the box from the right side by Sam Field with a powerful header below the body of Slavi Petrov.
The friendly match was part of the preparation for the upcoming qualifying round for EURO 2017. Bulgaria is the host of group 8 from 10th to 15th November and will face the teams of Portugal, Denmark and Belarus.
Bulgaria U19: 1 Daniel Naumov (Slavi Petrov – 45’), 4 Angel Lyaskov, 5 Alex Petkov (Vladislav Zhikov – 88’), 7 Ivaylo Naydenov, 8 Ivaylo Klimentov (Stanislav Ivanov – 58’), 9 Valentin Yoskov (Ivan Kirev – 58’), 10 Iliyan Stefanov (Ivan Tilev – 45’), 11 Svetoslav Kovachev (Ilia Djamov – 78’), 14 Petar Genchev, 15 Petko Hristov, 18 Mariyan Dimitrov (Andrea Hristov – 45’)
Head coach: Angel Stoykov
England U19: 1 Aynsley Pears (Middlesbrough); 2 Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), 3 Jay DaSilva (Chelsea), 5 Cameron Humphreys (Manchester City), 6 Easah Suliman (Cheltenham Town on loan from Aston Villa); 4 Tom Davies (Everton) (c), 7 Isaac Buckley-Ricketts (Manchester City), 8 Sam Field (West Bromwich Albion), 10 Marcus Edwards (Tottenham Hotspur); 9 Stephy Mavididi (Arsenal) 11, Andre Green (Aston Villa).
Substitutes: 14 Dujon Sterling (Chelsea) for Buckle-Ricketts 40, 13 Will Mannion (Hull City) for Pears H/T, 16 Ryan Sessegnon (Fulham) for Green 60, 17 Adetayo Edun (Fulham) for Davies 60, 12 Trevor Chalobah (Chelsea) for Alexander-Arnold 71, 15 Darnell Johnson (Leicester City) for Edwards 85, 18 Chris Willock (Arsenal) for Humphreys 85.
Substitutes not used: 22 Aaron Ramsdale (Sheffield United)
Head Coach: Keith Downing
Goal scorers: Edwards 9, Sterling 93 (England), Ivanov 70 (Bulgaria)
Photo: The FA
Department " Public Relations and Media"
