Clinical Belgium open with win

Belgium, UEFA European Under-17 Championship semi-finalists three years ago, made a winning start to elite round Group 4 against Poland.

They were ahead on 17 minutes after a great attack down the right, a one-two preceding Benito Raman's cross for Michael Lallemand to finish. With 15 minutes left Poland's Mateusz Romachów was dismissed for a foul on Thorgan Hazard and shortly afterwards Marijn Vandewalle crossed low from the left for Dino Arslanagic to tap in a clinching second goal.

Belgium's head of youth teams, Mark Van Geersom, said: "We certainly deserved that victory. We were tactically and technically stronger than Poland. They're really physical but we deserved our 1-0 lead at half-time. In second half, they put more pressure on us and some of our boys were not as calm as we would like but we can thank our goalkeeper, who made a fantastic save. After that turning point, we managed to score another goal and win."

Lallemand, whose side face Spain on Friday when Poland play group hosts Northern Ireland, added: "We were very well organised and tactically we really listened to what our coach told us. We followed his plan. In the second half, in spite of the pressure from Poland, we managed to find solutions and to score another goal."