Tyrique George scores as England Under-21s earn narrow victory over Andorra | OneFootball

Tyrique George scored the only goal of the game as England Under-21s earned a narrow 1-0 victory over Andorra in their European Championship qualifier at Pride Park.

Lee Carsley’s side were made to work hard by the minnows, who made it difficult for the holders, but they nevertheless continued their winning start to the qualification campaign and kept a third straight clean sheet in what was an otherwise dominant display.

Andorra sat in a low block and frustrated England in the first half and Carsley’s side were unable to find a way through until George opened the scoring in emphatic style after 41 minutes on his first Under-21s start.

England continued to dominate proceedings in the second period without putting the ball in the net and were denied more goals through a string of saves by Marc De Castro.

Fans turned up to see an exhibition and goals against the side that sit bottom of Group D but Andorra’s resilient defence proved troublesome to break down and was breached only once despite England having 19 shots throughout the contest.

The first chance fell to George after a well-worked move but the Chelsea winger was unable to convert his effort from close range.

Andorra were more than holding their own through the opening quarter and the hosts tried to assert their authority through a neat exchange of one-touch passes which ended with Ethan Nwaneri knocking a tame one into the gloves of De Castro in the Andorra goal.

The Young Lions thought they had taken the lead in the 29th minute. Jamie Gittens looked the livewire for England and he picked out Josh King who stroked home but celebrations were cut short by the assistant referee’s offside flag.

England finally broke down Andorra’s stubborn defence four minutes before the break.

Gittens provided the spark with some superb footwork which took two defenders out the game and he fed it across to George who smashed it high into the net for the breakthrough.

England almost doubled their advantage seven minutes after the interval as a corner fell kindly to George inside the box he diverted an effort on target but was cleared off the line by Gerard Sola.

The home side continued to go in search of a second. Jobe Bellingham had a couple of efforts from distance and saw one saved by De Castro before sending the other wide of the target.

Andorra had De Castro to thank for keeping the deficit at one as he got down well to deny Rico Lewis’ drilled effort – one of six saves he made on the night.

The visitors were not out of the contest either. Goalkeeper James Beadle was a bystander for most of the game but was forced into his first save in the 80th minute to deny Yedid Santaella from outside the box.