England's Under 21s Recover From Early Deficit to Defeat Slovenia 2-1

The England under 21 team kicked off their new season yesterday, with an international friendly against Slovenia, in preparation for their European Championship qualification campaign, winning the contest, 2-1.

Goals from Micah Richards and James Milner ensured England would take the win at Hull's KC Stadium, after going 1-0 down thanks to Slovenia's Etien Velikonja. The win now gives them momentum heading into next month's qualifier against Portugal.

Slovenia took the lead in the 12th minute.  After catching the English defence napping, Uros Korun gave Velikonja a perfect through ball, and the striker flicked it past keeper Joe Lewis for the early 1-0 advantage.

England could've had a penalty moments later when Blackburn's Matt Derbyshire was felled in the box, but referee Albert Toussaint waved away the strong appeals of England players.

The decision didn't matter too much, however, as England tied the game minutes later. After causing problems in the Slovenia penalty area, Micah Richards tapped the ball into an empty net following Tom Huddlestone's corner, to level the scores at 1-1 in the 25th minute.  

England then took the lead 10 minutes later, as Newcastle's James Milner swivelled around on the egde of the box before hitting into the bottom left-hand corner.

England then had two more chances before the break, with goalscorers Milner and Richards both trying to add to their tally, and both being denied by keeper Matjaz Rozman.

After the break, England freshened things up by bringing on Tom Heaton and Michael Knightly, and the latter almost made an instant impact, drawing a diving save from Rozman to stop England getting a third.

Things then went from bad to worse for the visitors, when after having a penalty kick denied, Nejc Pecnik was given a red card for a foul and abusive language.

After going down to 10-men, it was obvious that the home side would then dominate, and they did just that, with Derbyshire seeing a low shot saved by Rozman, and Knightly seeing his fantastic curling shot bounce back off the post.