Introduction
We have just completed the FIFA Women’s Under 20 World Cup in Poland in September 2026 with of course Spain (who else?) winning just their second title at this level beating North Korea – the reigning Champions. They won on penalties.
Interestingly, this was almost the mirror image of the Final of the Women’s Under 17 World Cup in 2024 between these two teams when on that occasion, North Korea won on penalties.
But, what about England and the Young Lionesses? How did they do in this tournament and which players could end up being Senior level World Cup winning Lionesses for England in the future?
Background – What is the FIFA Women’s Under 20 World Cup?
The FIFA Women’s Under 20 World Cup is a global tournament held every two years for youth players of the various FIFA members. The 2026 Edition is the 12th Edition in total with England qualifying for the first time since 2018 when they finished third. To qualify from Europe, the teams played in the UEFA Women’s Under 19 Championship in 2025, with the top 5 Teams qualifying for the FIFA Women’s Under 20 World Cup.
England historically have not done too well in this tournament, not even qualifying for half of these tournaments with the best ever performance being third place in 2018 and reaching the quarter finals first. This compares with Germany, the USA and North Korea all winning the tournament three times (although funnily enough, Germany did not even qualify for this tournament). North Korea were the reigning Champions going into the tournament.
The England Women’s Under 20 Team from 2018 included some of today’s major stars including Georgia Stanway now at Arsenal and a two-time Senior Level European Championship Winner who finished joint top-scorer at that tournament with 6 goals. We also had Lauren Hemp and Alessia Russo scoring 3 goals in the tournament with a single goal from Chloe Kelly. The semi-final 2-0 loss to Japan in 2018 also included Niamh Charles and future England players like Taylor Hinds and Esme Morgan.
There were some issues with this tournament not being held in the official FIFA international window. Meaning that the clubs of the players were not obliged to let their players leave for the duration of the tournament.
This meant that England were unable to choose Erica Parkinson of North Carolina Courage in the NWSL and Lexi Potter of Chelsea who both surely would have played in the Starting XI if not the team.
England’s Overall Performance: Disappointing
Overall, a very disappointing tournament performance, ending in the Round of 16 with a 3-0 loss to Nigeria. England were overall lucky to even finish in second place and even to qualify from the Group after a very lucky draw v Canada in the first game where a late penalty secured a point.
Remember, many of the players in this England squad did so well with the England Women’s Under 17 Team in 2024 which both reached the Final of the UEFA Women’s Under 17 European Championships and reached the semi-final of the FIFA Women’s Under 17 World Cup that year.
Some of the main issues which caused the poor performance were:
- Missing players – There were some issues with this tournament not being held in the official FIFA international window. Meaning that the clubs of the players were not obliged to let their players leave for the duration of the tournament.
- This meant that England were unable to choose Erica Parkinson of North Carolina Courage in the NWSL and Lexi Potter of Chelsea who both surely would have played in the Starting XI if not the team.
- Both of these players have been called up to the Senior England Women’s Squad for the World Cup qualifier v Greece in October 2026
- There were also other missing players – I am not sure of the exact reasons – including the right-back Nelly Las of Chelsea who had some incredible performances during the Women’s Under 17 European and World Championships, the Captain Laila Harbert who withdrew from the squad
- Defensive frailties – especially passing out from the back – Zara Shaw of Liverpool WFC – the Captain – made two terrible passes to allow Nigeria to score twice in the Round of 16 game.
- The goalkeeper Katie Cox of Chelsea actually is a solid goalkeeper and made some great saves. However, throughout the tournament she made multiple sloppy passes from the back which incredibly did not lead to goals or opportunities for the opposition but easily could have
- England also lost Cecily Wellesley-Smith to injury during the tournament. She was a key central defender so her loss was badly felt
- The attack – Princess Ademiluyi just not good enough at this level. She did get into good positions but could not score when England really needed her to so the Coach should probably have swapped her out earlier
- Lola Brown as a winger was simply not able to beat any players so always needed to cut back so that reduced England’s threat a lot
An Overview of the Games
Group B Overview
Group B contained Brazil, England, Canada and Tanzania. Brazil were one of the pre-tournament favourites so it was all about who would come second. Although with four of the six third-placed teams also going through, it wasn’t impossible to get through even if results didn’t go their way.
Realistically though, it was England and Canada playing for the second place. Try and win the other two games and see if they could survive against Brazil. England in that respect were luckier because they played Brazil last – which did make a big difference.
Group B: England 1-1 v Canada
This was a really interesting game. The first half was played almost entirely in the middle of the pitch with a kind of “feeling out” process. One of the defenders gifted Princess Ademiluyi a back-pass and this is where she needed to have anticipated what to do before she received the ball as she could have potentially scored.
In the second half, Canada brought their star striker Chukwu on and it was a different game with Chukwu scoring on 52 minutes and Canada completely dominating the game and missing multiple chances even if the stats seem to favour England who had more shots. This led to England’s star of the tournament, left-sided midfielder Rachel Maltby earning and then scoring the 89th minute penalty to give England a precious point.
A precious point that set England up for the next game against Tanzania.
England 5 – 1 Tanzania
This is where England were able to let loose going up 4-0 at half-time with a hat-trick from Rachel Maltby including two penalties. Tanzania, who had already lost 4-1 to Brazil, did manage to score a consolation goal before Gale got another for England to finish 5-1.
Brazil ended up easily beating Canada 3-0 to qualify automatically for the next round setting up the next round of games well.
Brazil started this game basically not taking it seriously. They were singing and dancing in the tunnel before the game and this was shown by the Brazil Coach changing many players from the first two games including the goalkeeper. England were hampered by the injury to Cecily Wellesley-Smith before the game.
This meant in the first half that Brazil were just not as powerful in attack. Their attacking play did not really go anywhere. Then, England ended up scoring through Lily Dent of Sunderland after a really good move involving Rachel Maltby and Lola Brown.
Brazil then completely changed things at half-time, with three substitutions and taking the game more seriously. They ended up getting more involved in the game. However, a bizarre decision to swap out May Cruft in the England midfield on 61 minutes when England looked really comfortable there for the American based Chloe Hylton proved disastrous. England lost control of the midfield and Hylton (along with England right-back Ria Bose) on the right hand side combined to foul Brendha after 71 minutes. Hylton had looked off the pace.
This is where there some very interesting game management strategy by Brazil. Katie Cox, the England goalkeeper had on her water bottle a list of Brazil players and where they would hit their penalties. So, Brazil – as England had done several times already this tournament – did the trick where one player stands over the penalty spot and then gives it another player to actually take it.
So, Katie Cox went back to her water bottle at the side of the goal to see what the next player would likely do. This is where Brazil then switched to a third player – Clarinha – who scored on 76 minutes – a full 5 minutes after Brazil won the penalty. Katie Cox was not allowed to go back to the water bottle again. Very clever from Brazil.
It then looked like England had done enough to secure a draw and then second place ahead of Canada before Gisele scored an incredible 95th minute goal after Ria Bose lost her on England’s right hand side for Brazil to win all three of their goals.
This left England and Canada level on points and goal difference so England went through in second on better “team conduct” – i.e. fewer yellow cards etc to get through to meet Nigeria.
England 0 – 3 Nigeria, Round of 16
Nigeria were always going to be difficult opponents. They finished second in their Group to eventual winners Spain and had beaten New Caledonia 10-1 in their final Group game.
Re-watching the highlights, England actually could have won this game if not taken it to extra-time. The issue is that they basically threw the game away with two incredible errors from Captain and central defender Zara Shaw – someone who plays regularly for Liverpool in the WSL. For the first goal after 8 minutes, she literally passed to the opposition player Tosin Rafiu who ran through to score the goal past Katie Cox.
Vera Jones – surely one of England’s best hopes had an incredible game and after 25 minutes weaved her way through the Nigerian midfield to play an incredible pass for Ademiluyi who was one on one with the keeper and missed yet again.
She did earn a penalty after 32 minutes and then despite scoring three penalties in the Group Stage, Rachel Maltby’s strong shot was pushed onto the bar by the keeper and saved.
England could literally have been 2-1 up after 34 minutes. It remained 0-0. This let Nigeria off the hook and they took advantage with a fantastic goal from Akekoromowei after 46 minutes from a corner.
Then the horror show from Zara Show being dispossessed to let Nigeria get their third goal and England are out.
Strong Contenders for Future Stardom
I won’t touch on Lexi Potter and Erica Meg Parkinson who are in the current Senior England International Squad and didn’t play in this tournament. But from this tournament, the stand-out players are:
- Rachel Maltby at left-midfield/left-back – with a superb performance of scoring 4 goals and being a dangerous attacking force. Maltby plays regularly for Aston Villa in the WSL including playing 16 games in the 2025/26 season including 11 games as a starter
- She looks a superb prospect to slot in at either left-back or left-midfield and let Lauren Hemp, England’s star winger run the opposition ragged on the left wing
- In the Women’s Under 17 World Cup in 2024, Maltby was solid without standing out and it is good to see how she has grown
- Currently only rated 66 by EA FC27 but she will surely grow
- Chloe Sarwie of Chelsea – although England lost to Brazil – her performance here was incredible and assured. Really in control of the area and working well with Maltby. Sarwie potentially could go straight in at left-back as this has often been a problem position for the England senior-position
- Vera Jones – also of Chelsea – a superstar in the making. She has gotten even better since the FIFA Women’s Under 17 World Cup in 2024 and during this tournament was able to keep hold of the ball despite a lot of strong challenges from the opposition. Jones has a magic which is on par with someone like Lauren James – also of Chelsea.
- For a team that conceded goals in every game and conceding 7 goals in 4 games, the defence obviously was not the strong point. However, there were some positives
- Katie Cox, the Goalkeeper of Chelsea, made some good saves although as noted, some awful passing out from the back. In the FIFA Women’s Under 17 World Cup in 2024, the Manager used three different goalkeepers during the tournament so it is good to see some stability here
- Cecily Wellesley-Smith also had some good showings at centre-back before her injury cost England a lot of problems at the centre of defence
Summary
Whilst overall this was a disappointing performance for England with an early exit and some poor defensive work plus relying on poor finishing from the opposition, there were some positives plus they did miss some of their key players through injury or clubs not allowing them to play.
Watching the Senior England Women’s Team play against Greece yesterday (Friday, 9th October 2026), we could see some of the stars of the England Under 20 Women’s Team which reached the semi-final of the 2018 tournament including both Georgia Stanway and Alessia Russo who scored against Greece plus Lauren Hemp doing very well also,
With a lot of this Team playing at WSL giants Chelsea, we have to hope they can get the game time needed to really develop and then to be fast-tracked into the Senior Team.