European Under-21 Championship: England knocked out by late Romania flurry
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George Puscas was one of nine full Romania internationals in their starting line-up
England Under-21s were knocked out of the European Championships after losing a six-goal thriller against Romania in Cesena, with all the goals coming in an 18-minute period at the end of the game.
George Puscas opened the scoring for Romania after Jonjoe Kenny had conceded a penalty to kick-start the crazy conclusion to the match.
Demarai Gray's 18-yard strike brought England level but Ianis Hagi immediately restored Romania's lead, only for Tammy Abraham to equalise two minutes later.
However, with Aidy Boothroyd's side chasing a win, and only the group winners guaranteed to advance from Group C, Florinel Coman twice scored from distance late on, helped by a mistake by goalkeeper Dean Henderson for the first.
France's 1-0 victory over Croatia in the other Group C game later on Friday ensured England - pointless after two games - cannot progress.
England's hopes extinguished by errors
After reaching the semi-finals of this competition in 2017, England had arrived in Italy hoping to take the next step after an unbeaten qualification campaign.
But their exit came amid a catalogue of errors as they lost both their first two games.
Hamza Choudhury's sending off coupled with Aaron Wan-Bissaka's injury time own goal against France set the tone. And that continued on the east coast of Italy against Romania.
While Boothroyd made five changes to the side that lost to France, his tinkering had a limited impact against an incisive Romanian outfit.
Despite fielding 10 outfield players from just three clubs - Chelsea, Leicester and Everton - England lacked fluency and familiarity, and Romania carved them open repeatedly in the opening stages.
Goalkeeper Henderson brilliantly palmed efforts from Andrei Ivan and Dennis Man to safety and saved Hagi's left-footed strike from distance with his feet.
Kenny, brought in to replace Wan-Bissaka after his error-strewn display against France, fared little better.
The Everton full-back was caught out of position as Ivan drilled a shot against the foot of the England post during the first period and it was his rash challenge on Coman that allowed Romania to go ahead.
Fikayo Tomori's snatched clearance teed-up Hagi, son of Romania legend Gheorghe, for Romania's second.
And Henderson then allowed Coman's 20-yard drive through his hands and body at his near post to compound a dreadful evening for England, before Coman capped proceedings with a looping drive past the helpless keeper in injury time.
What's next?
England face Croatia in their final Group C game on Monday in San Marino at 20:00 BST.