Spurs international watch: Age groups round up

 On the second day of the international break, there was age group international football for some Tottenham Hotspur players. Ashley Phillips and Will Lankshear’s England U20 side were in action at home to Germany in the U20 elite league. Meanwhile, Archie Gray and Dane Scarlett’s England U21 side had a friendly, as they played Spain on the road.

We begin with England U20s, who played Germany at the home of League Two side Chesterfield. There is form for young Spurs players there this season, with George Abbott recorded his first professional assist there, as he helped his Notts County side to a 2-2 draw there during the previous international break.

Unfortunately, Phillips was not named amongst those in the match day squad for this game, whilst Lankshear was named amongst the substitutes for the game, with Max Dean of Gent starting the game instead.

It would end up being a fruitful evening, as England would win 4-0. Dean himself scored one of the goals. Lankshear came on in the 60th minute, and grabbed a goal for himself 13 minutes later, for his second goal in as many games, as the young lions pulled off a seriously impressive performance and result.

Will Lankshear makes it two goals in two on Friday evening

This win has extended England’s gap at the top of the U20 elite league to four points, with 13 points from five games. Their visitors on the night do have a game in hand, and could narrow the gap to a point, but on tonight’s showing, there is a gap in quality between the sides.

Next up for England is another U20 elite league game, as they travel to Poland. 15:00 GMT kick off on Tuesday for that one.

As for the U21s, as touched on above, they were in action away to Spain in a friendly, having secured their Euro 2025 qualification last month. For this one, Gray started at right-back, whilst Scarlett came off the bench for Liam Delap, who Spurs fans will be all too familiar with.

It was a solid performance from Gray, who completed four tackles, two clearances, 73 touches of the ball, and 7/9 total duels won. Ahead of him on the right hand side was Spurs linked Tyler Dibling, who, like Gray, is playing for England U21s at just 18 years of age.

Understandably, Scarlett was not able to make much of an impact on the game, in a fairly lowkey performance from the young lions. Next up, for the final game before Lee Carsley retakes his position, is another friendly away to the Netherlands on Monday, at 17:45 GMT.

Finally, Luka Vuskovic's Croatia U21 side fell to a 1-0 defeat to Georgia in the first leg of their play off tie to qualify for next years Euros. The second leg, at home, is on Tuesday, at 18:00 GMT.