West Ham United’s Emeka Adiele and Chinaza Nwosu both experienced defeats while representing England's Young Lions at U18s and U17s level respectively.
The U18s concluded their four-nation tournament in Valencia with a narrow 1-0 defeat to Germany in the third-place play-off; Bayer Leverkusen’s Montrell Cullbreath scoring the decisive goal on the stroke of half-time.
Adiele, who came off the bench in England’s 3-1 loss to Poland on Friday, played the full 90 minutes at left wing-back in this morning’s fixture, causing plenty of problems at the back for Germany’s wide players. Today's result however extends a challenging start to the 2024/25 campaign for Liam Bramley’s U18s, who have registered just one win from their opening seven friendly matches.
Meanwhile, the U17s, who had enjoyed a strong start to the season with five wins in six matches and a dominant UEFA Euro U17 preliminary qualifying campaign, concluded their Belgium double header with another defeat. Despite an excellent equaliser from Manchester City's Ryan McAidoo, the home side emerged 2-1 winners. Nwosu earned his seventh cap under Neil Ryan, featuring as a holding midfielder for 80 minutes before being replaced by Middlesbrough’s Anton Palmer. Fellow Hammer Lanre Awesu, who played the final 30 minutes in goal during England’s previous match, did not feature.
With today’s fixtures bringing the England camps to a close, Adiele, Nwosu and Awesu will now return to east London to rejoin their West Ham United Academy teammates at Chadwell Heath and Rush Green.
