The initial stage of qualifying for the majority of teams takes place during the current international break, with the first of three matches in November being played on Wednesday. The top two sides from each group will progress to the elite round in March, ahead of the tournament in Romania next summer.

England Under-19s are in Bulgaria for their group and had a strong Chelsea presence for their opening game against Lithuania, with Harrison Murray-Campbell, Kiano Dyer, Shumaira Mheuka and George all in the starting line-up, plus Josh Acheampong joining them from the bench late on and Ted Curd an unused substitute.

As expected, the Young Lions dominated possession, and made a quick start to the game. George had already tested the keeper twice before his cross from the left was headed in by captain Ethan Nwaneri for the opener seven minutes in.

Surprisingly, that turned out to be the only goal of the game, despite continued pressure from England, and Murray-Campbell’s header from another George cross being cleared off the line. The 1-0 victory still puts them top, though, ahead of further games against Bulgaria (Saturday) and Belgium (Tuesday), who drew their first game 1-1.

Over in Kosovo, Guiu played the first hour of Spain Under-19s' opening match and also made a big impact from the start, as they strolled to a 3-0 win over the Faroe Islands, despite being reduced to 10 men.

Like George, Guiu twice drew saves from the keeper during the early exchanges as the Spanish asserted their authority on the game, before the Blues striker put the opening goal on a plate for Antonio Cordero to tap into the empty net just shy of the half-hour mark.

Guiu was withdrawn shortly after an own goal had put Spain two ahead and they went on to get a third through Omar Janneh even with a man less, following a red card for Manu Gonzalez.

However, that is only good enough for second place after Austria thrashed Kosovo 4-0 in the group’s other game, ahead of Spain’s matches against the hosts on Saturday and leaders on Tuesday.

Also in Under-19 Euro qualifying, Genesis Antwi played the full 90 minutes for Sweden away at Georgia. Although they took a deserved first-half lead from a corner, the home side equalised with a set-piece of their own before a deflected long-range effort two minutes from the end condemned Sweden to a 2-1 loss. That leaves them with work to do in the matches against Estonia on Saturday and Norway on Tuesday.

Elsewhere in today's youth internationals, Chelsea defender Harry McGlinchey was part of the Republic of Ireland Under-18s team which suffered a 2-0 defeat to Japan, in the first of three friendlies for the side in Croatia during this international window.