Netherlands Retain Under-17 Euro Title

Netherlands Retain Under-17 Euro Title By Our Reporter Netherlands retained their Under-17 European Championships title as they beat Italy 4-2 in the final in Dublin on Sunday. Almost twelve months to the day since the sides met in the final of the 2018 edition in England, the Netherlands made it back-to-back successes after racing into a three-goal first-half lead that Italy never looked likely to recover from. Sontje Hansen of Ajax opened the scoring for the Dutch, before a free-kick from Liverpool’s Ki-Jana Hoever came back off the post to be finished by Naoufal Bannis on the rebound. Chelsea’s Ian Maatsen scored the Netherlands’ third before the break, but a fine strike from Italy’s Lorenzo Colombo cut the arrears. Naci Unuvar became the first 15-year-old to score in an Under-17 European Championship final to seal the victory, before Colombo scored his and his team’s second late on to earn Italy a consolation.