England’s Under-17s were dumped out of the World Cup by Uzbekistan despite the Asian country’s manager being shown a red card for deliberately kicking the ball into the stands.
Greg Lincoln’s side finished top of their group in Indonesia and had been expected to progress to the last eight against a side ranked 73rd in the world. But they fell behind in Jakarta to a goal from Amirbek Saidov before Manchester City’s Joel Ndala equalised with his third goal of the tournament.
A free-kick from Lazizbek Mirzaev midway through the second half proved to be the winning goal despite Ndala striking the post as England chased the game. Uzbekistan’s manager, Jamoliddin Rahmatullayev, was shown a red card after preventing England from taking a quick throw-in by booting the ball into the stands in the dying moments of the game.
It was a disappointing exit for England, who were playing in the tournament for the first time since their triumph in 2017 under now Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper. Uzbekistan will face France in the quarter-finals after they defeated Senegal on penalties.
