With the first of three matches in November taking place on Wednesday, most teams are in the first round of qualifying during the current international break. Prior to the competition in Romania the following summer, the top two teams from each group will advance to the elite round in March.

With Harrison Murray-Campbell, Kiano Dyer, Shumaira Mheuka, and George starting, Josh Acheampong coming on as a late substitute, and Ted Curd as an unused substitute, the England Under-19s, who are in Bulgaria for their group, had a formidable Chelsea presence in their opening match against Lithuania.The Young Lions started the game quickly and dominated possession, as was to be expected. Seven minutes in, captain Ethan Nwaneri headed in George’s cross from the left for the first goal after George had already put the keeper to the test twice.

Despite persistent pressure from England and Murray-Campbell’s header from another George cross being taken off the line, it was surprisingly the only goal of the match. Despite the 1-0 win, they are still in first place going into their upcoming matches against Belgium (Tuesday) and Bulgaria (Saturday), who drew their opening match 1-1.

Despite being down to 10 men, Guiu played the first hour of Spain Under-19s’ opening encounter in Kosovo and had a significant influence right away as they easily defeated the Faroe Islands 3-0.

Just before the break, the Blues striker put the first goal on a plate for Antonio Cordero to touch into the empty net. Like George, Guiu twice got saves from the keeper in the early exchanges as the Spanish established their dominance over the game.

Guiu was substituted soon after Spain had taken a two-goal lead through an own goal, and even with a man less, they managed to score a third through Omar Janneh after Manu Gonzalez was sent off.Ahead of Spain’s games against the hosts on Saturday and the leaders on Tuesday, Austria crushed Kosovo 4-0 in the other group encounter, thus that is only good enough for second place.

Genesis Antwi played the entire ninety minutes for Sweden against Georgia in their Under-19 Euro qualifying match. Despite taking a well-earned lead from a corner in the first half, the home team equalized with a set-piece of their own, and two minutes from the end, Sweden lost 2-1 due to a deflected long-range shot. They still have games against Norway on Tuesday and Estonia on Saturday to complete.

Harry McGlinchey, a defender for Chelsea, was a member of the Republic of Ireland Under-18 squad that lost 2-0 to Japan in the first of three friendly the team will play in Croatia during international window.