Report: England WU19s 1-0 France

The Young Lionesses made it two wins from three games in the UEFA Women's U19 EURO group stage, after substitute Poppy Pritchard’s individual brilliance sealed victory over France to send England into the semi-finals for the first time in over a decade.

John Griffiths' side had to be patient for their chances in the first half, with France also having threatening attackers going forward. But neither side could open the scoring in the first 45 minutes, with both sides enjoying good spells of possession while England’s Michelle Agyemang, who scored a hat-trick in the first game against tournament hosts Lithuania, looked most lively.

But in the second half, England stayed compact when defending as a team and made it hard for France to progress in the final third, where Katie Cox was on the spot to deny the French when called into action.

England progressed through the game with an attacking flow, with substitute Vivianne Lia looking a threat down the flank and causing havoc for the French defence after her introduction.

And England broke the deadlock through Pritchard, who continued her fine form after a hat-trick in the opening game as the Manchester City forward found herself one-on-one with a defender isolated, before she used her skill to delay the player before delivering a shot on goal which found the top corner from inside the area.

She then had an opportunity to get a second in the 90th minute, but her strike across goal was claimed by the goalkeeper.

The result sees England finish on seven points in their group and continue their search for silverware in Lithuania next week, when they enter the knockout stage of the competition. They will now take on Spain on Wednesday afternoon (12pm BST) at Marijampole, which will be available to watch live via the BBC Sport website in the UK.

England: 1 Katie Cox (GK, Chelsea), 3 Cerys Brown (Chelsea), 4 Ashanti Akpan (Chelsea), 5 Lucy Newell (Manchester United), 6 Brooke Aspin (Chelsea), Lexi Potter (Chelsea), 9 Michelle Agyemang (Arsenal), 10 Maddy Earl (Arsenal), 11 Freya Godfrey (Arsenal), 16 Katy Watson (Sunderland), 17 Ria Bose (unattatched).

Substitutions: Poppy Pritchard (Manchester City) for Agyemang (Arsenal) for 46’, Vivianne Lia (Arsenal) for Godfrey 59’, Mia Enderby (Liverpool) for Watson 60’, Louanne Worsey (Birmingham City) for Earl for  68’, Katie Reid (Arsenal) for Aspin 83’

Substitutions not used: 13 Hannah Poulter (Brighton & Hove Albion), 20 Araya Dennis (Tottenham Hotspur).

Goals: Pritchard 77’