England Under-21s end disappointing Euro tournament with draw against Croatia despite leading three times

ENGLAND’S Under-21 flops fluffed their lines and conceded another late goal to end their nightmare Euros winless.

Aidy Boothroyd’s boys were on course for victory in this Group C dead rubber thanks to heroics from Reiss Nelson and Jonjoe Kenny.

But Josip Brekalo’s 82nd minute equaliser - his second goal of the night - ensured the Young Lions’ worst Finals since Israel 2013 when they failed to win any of their opening three group matches.

Italia 19 has been a total disaster for England.

The alarm bells started ringing when Boothroyd named his 23-man squad last month and there were too many attacking midfielders and not enough defensive ones.

Boothroyd and England boss Gareth Southgate should have sat down senior stars Harry Winks and Declan Rice at the end of the season and told them they were not going to the Nations League.

Instead, they were coming here with the U21s for, in their cases, some much-needed tournament experience to stand them in good stead for next summer when, all being well, they will be the Three Lions’ first-choice midfield pairing at Euro 2020.

England would then have been spared Hamza Choudhury’s red card against France and Leicester’s hairy hot-head would have learnt so much as an understudy to two senior stars.

It is not the only selection issue to have dogged Boothroyd.

Dropping Phil Foden for the must-win clash against Romania was almost as ridiculous as the manager’s claim he wanted to save the player for this match against Croatia.

TIME FOR TAMMY

Boothroyd also boobed up front by picking Dominic Solanke then Dominic Calvert-Lewin over Tammy Abraham.

The Chelsea frontman, who scored 26 goals on loan at Aston Villa, showed why he should have been the Young Lions’ first-choice striker when he came off the bench against Romania to almost inspire a stunning late salvo before they went down 4-2. And he impressed again he was finally handed a start here.

But you cannot lay all of the blame at the manager’s door. The players have to shoulder some of the responsibility for this debacle.

James Maddison, despite a much-improved showing here, was such a disappointment overall, as was his Leicester team-mate Harvey Barnes.

Meanwhile, Aaron Wan-Bissaka was not seen after his farcical own goal capped a poor individual display and condemned England to a last-gasp defeat in the opener against France.

Too many of Boothroyd’s boys made mistakes at both ends of the pitch.

SEVEN of the NINE goals they conceded came in the final 15 minutes of matches, seemingly highlighting a problem with their concentration.

There was certainly a major issue with their game management. And the fact England had young professional footballers unable to see out all of their three games to earn at least a draw is a sad indictment on their coaching by clubs and country.

Fingers must also be pointed at those above Boothroyd, who at times was hemmed in by the FA’s insistence on all England teams playing and being coached in the same way - regardless of the events and opposition.

REASON FOR OPTIMISM

There were a couple of positives.

In Dean Henderson we had the best goalkeeper at the tournament and the eventual challenger to Jordan Pickford’s place in the full England team.

And Foden showed he is the real deal with his sensational solo goal against France.

The City ace started tonight as Boothroyd bizarrely fielded a team stronger than the one he put out for the do-or-die clash against Romania.

Nelson, overlooked by Boothroyd for the first two defeats, opened the scoring with an 11th-minute penalty after he had been tripped in the box by Branimir Kalaica.

Brekalo equalised for Croatia six minutes before the break when he cut inside from the left and fired a shot into the top corner.

Maddison restored England’s lead with a fine finish three minutes into the second half after the Croatian defence had failed to clear a Nelson cross.

But then a mistake by the otherwise-faultless Lloyd Kelly let in ex-Everton star Nikola Vlasic to make it 2-2.

Kenny thought he had struck the winner when he drilled home a 25-yard stnner in the 70th minute.

But England conceded another late goal as Brekalo nipped in to make it 3-3 eight minutes from time.