Rico Lewis scored a last-gasp penalty as England Under-21s laboured to a 1-1 draw against Andorra in their European Championship qualifier at the Estadi Naciona.
Lee Carsley’s side were frustrated in the reverse fixture at Pride Park back in October where they edged a 1-0 victory and the Andorrans caused more problems here as England dropped points for the first time in qualifying.
The Young Lions conceded for the first time in their opening six matches when Gerard Sola gave the hosts a shock lead, seven minutes after the break.
The European champions were staring down the barrel of a first defeat since the Euros last June until Lewis scored a late penalty to rescue a point.
It was the underdog hosts who posed the first threat when Sola decided to have a crack from range which had England goalkeeper James Beadle scrambling but the ball flew wide.
England failed to get into their groove in the first 45 minutes and were far from their best as Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly both tried their luck from range but failed to find the target.
The away side were then punished for a lacklustre performance as Andorra stunned them after 52 minutes, Sola poking his effort past a helpless Beadle from Yedid Santaella’s cross.
England aimed for a way back and it took until the 68th minute to register a first shot on target, which came from Jobe Bellingham’s speculative effort that was easily gathered by Marc de Castro.
The visitors finally began to push Andorra deeper and were offered a lifeline from the penalty spot when Ian Olivera brought down Bellingham inside the box.
England breathed a sigh of relief when Lewis fired the resulting spot-kick home to avoid an embarrassing defeat.
The visitors should have nicked it at the death but Tyler Dibling aimed his shot straight at De Castro.
