Friends turned to foes for a Manchester United pairing on Wednesday night as England met Wales at U19s level.
The two nations clashed in their opening UEFA European U19 Championship qualification group match.
The fixture saw two of United’s top attacking talents face off in Ethan Wheatley and Gabriele Biancheri, who both donned the number nine shirt for their respective nations.
Ultimately, it was Wheatley and England who ran out 2-0 victors thanks to an opening goal from Wheatley himself.
The 19 year old forced a good save out of the Wales keeper Lewys Benjamin in the first half but eventually provided the breakthrough in the 57th minute.
Chelsea’s Josh Acheampong drove through the centre of the pitch before laying off to Wheatley who steadied himself with one touch and fired into the bottom right corner.
Ethan Wheatley yn agor y sgorio i’r ymwelwyr. ⚽️
Ethan Wheatley opens the scoring for England.
📺 https://t.co/C86AkLf6Aq | #U19EURO pic.twitter.com/YZhKIFEbtX
— Sgorio ⚽️ (@sgorio) March 19, 2025
The goal will be certain to provide some confidence to the young English striker who has been struggling during his loan spell to make a mark.
Making only three appearances so far for the League Two club, Wheatley was absent from the Walsall squad for over a month until recently returning to the matchday squad against Bromley where he was an unused substitute.
Biancheri on the other hand has remained in United’s youth sides where he has been tearing it up this season with 19 goals across all levels.
England and Wales will now finish out their group stages with matches against Portugal and Turkey where both of United’s young talismans will be looking to extend their scoring records.
Elsewhere on international duty, Tyler Fletcher, Dan Armer and James Overy all started in Scotland U19s 1-1 draw with Sweden.
The match was Overy’s first call up to the Scotland setup having been born in Australia.
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Colm Murphy A football obsessed Canadian who moved to England to enjoy the beautiful game. Colm has been keen follower of Manchester United’s famed academy since seeing a fresh faced Adnan Januzaj for the club’s u18s and has been writing about football with a focus on youth development for over 10 years.
