Ominous England overpower ten-man Turkey

England are through to the UEFA European Under-17 Championship semi-finals after defeating Turkey.

John Peacock's side conceded a first-half penalty, which was saved, and then fell behind to Enes Ünal's opener, but went into the interval with the upper hand thanks to Dominic Solanke's equaliser and Hasan Özkan's dismissal. Second-half goals from Solanke, Jonjoe Kenny and Adam Armstrong completed the turnaround.

England advanced to the last four from Group A with a game to spare following Malta's 5-2 loss to the Netherlands, who also progressed as a result. Turkey, like the hosts, are out.

Armstrong had eight shots in the first half alone but was frustrated time and again by Turkey goalkeeper Tarık Çetin. The one occasion Tarık was out of position, in just the fourth minute, retreating defender Ertuğrul Ersoy thwarted Patrick Roberts.

England's Freddie Woodman, by contrast, was barely called upon. When he was for the first time, on the quarter-hour, he was more than up to the task, getting down smartly to save Enes's spot kick after Joseph Gomez felled Fatih Aktay. A minute later, however, Woodman was beaten by the Bursaspor striker, who escaped the attention of three defenders before unleashing an unerring finish.

If that was an expected contribution from a player who found the net six times in qualifying, what came from Gomez on 22 minutes was far less predictable: the centre-back embarked on a marauding 60-metre run, hit the byline and crossed for Solanke to finish.

With Hakan Tecimer's charges now down to ten men following Hasan's second yellow cards, Roberts, star of the show in the 3-0 defeat of Malta on Friday, was up to his old tricks early in the second half. First, with his left foot, he was denied by Tarık; then, this time with his right, he played in Solanke, who showed great composure to stroke the ball in.

Roberts was at it again just before the hour, showing great awareness to play in right-back Kenny, who fired into the roof of the net. Armstrong then got his goal at the tenth time of asking, passing the ball into an unguarded net after Tarık parried Roberts' effort.