England 2 - 1 Costa Rica: 2017 U-20 World Cup

Full-time: England 2-1 Costa Rica: match report

Costa Rica started well, and then finished with some extra pressure on  the English goal as they chased down a two-goal deficit, but over the course of the 90-plus minutes the young lions proved themselves worthy winners and take their place in the quarter finals.

Lookman at the double for England

Goals from Everton striker Ademola Lookman in the 35th and 63rd minutes seemed to have settled matters for England, however, as Costa Rica pushed more in the final period a penalty award allowed Leal to give them hope with injury time looming. Although the centrally-placed spot kick was blocked by Woodman, it fell kindly and Leal made no mistake with the rebound.

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There were four minutes of injury time to be added - although with substitutes and a lengthy pause in the game for injuries to Pineda and Solanke this seemed remarkably short - Costa Rica pushed again but were unable to create anything of real note. England move on in confident mood.

Young Lions make the quarter finals in good form

Impressive performances from Liverpool soon-to-be-new-boy Dominic Solanke, Calvert-Lewin and, of course, Lookman, should give England fans reason to be positive. If they can continue creating as many chances, goals will come. 

England 2 - 1 Costa Rica: how it happened:

England vs Costa Rica: match preview 

After wins over Argentina and South Korea, along with a draw with Guinea sandwiched in between, England face Costa Rica in the round of 16 of the U-20 World Cup.

It has been 24 years since England's last appearance in the last 16 of the competition and it is their 11th trip to the finals. Costa Rica, on the other hand, have appeared in eight finals before this year's tournament in the Korea Republic.

England

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Paul Simpson, England's manager, is keeping his feet firmly on the ground ahead of the knockout game: “We came here to qualify, we’ve achieved that going through top of the group, but we’ll keep our feet on the ground, because we know it means nothing going into the last 16."

England, who finished atop Group A, have not set the tournament alight with their style of playing but are unbeaten in three with five goals scored and just one conceded. They have five different goalscorer with Dominic Solanke, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Kieran Dowell, Adam Armstrong and Lewis Cook all neeting for the three lions.

Simpson is also proud of how his side have played against three different countries from three different continents and came out on top of the varying types of battle, "We’ve had three different types of competitors from different continents in the group, so they were all different challengers, but we’ve come through it really well.”

Engand's victory over Argentina on May 20th was their first since Michael Owen scored a goal to help them beat Mexico 10 on the 23rd of June 1997. They played 17 games in the interim and were not successful on any of those occasions.

Costa Rica

Costa Rica are joint-last in goals scored and have neeted just twice in three games as they finished third in Group C. They struggled through the group stages with a loss to Iran followed by a 1-1 draw against Portugal and a 1-0 win over Zambia but in what is their ninth appearence in the competition, they will be looking to progress to the quarter-finals against a fancied England side. They are looking to outdo their Egypt 2009 adventure when they found themselves in the last four of the tournament with stars such as Bryan Oviedo and Marcos Urena in the squad.

Randall Leal is a player England will have to keep an eye out for as he scored three of Costa Rica's five in qualifying but he is yet to find the net in the tournament proper. He plays for KV Mechelen in Belgium.