Dominic Calvert-Lewin played the final 15 minutes as 10-man England Under-21s suffered a cruel late defeat in their European Championship finals opener against France.
Manchester City teenager Phil Foden scored the game’s first goal on 54 minutes when he capped a mesmerising run with a cool finish beyond goalkeeper Paul Bernardoni.
England, though, were condemned to playing the final 25 minutes with a numerical disadvantage following the dismissal of Hamza Choudhury.
And Aidy Boothroyd’s Young Lions’ resistance was shattered inside seven painful minutes in Cesena.
Jonathan Ikone’s low blast flew past Dean Henderson with two minutes remaining to peg England back.
In the last of five minutes’ stoppage time England failed to deal with a corner from France’s left and in his desperation to clear Aaron Wan-Bissaka inadvertently rifled the ball high and out of the reach of the helpless Henderson.
The highly-fancied French could have led going into the interval but Moussa Dembele’s penalty on 24 minutes – after captain Jake Clarke-Salter was penalised for handball – was excellently saved by goalkeeper Henderson.
France were awarded a second spot kick nine minutes after Foden’s deadlock breaker.
Choudhury’s foul on Jonathan Bamaba initially earned the Leicester City midfielder a booking – only for referee Srdjan Jovanovic to upgrade his punishment to a red card following a VAR review.
Houssem Aouar’s effort from 12 yards thundered into an upright but England’s reprieve would be only temporary.
Calvert-Lewin replaced Ryan Sessegnon for the closing stages and will hope to start when England face what is already a must-win clash against Romania on Friday.
Earlier in the day Everton midfielder Nikola Vlasic was on the scoresheet but could not prevent Croatia Under-21s from going down 4-1 to Romania.
Vlasic’s 18th-minute effort halved Croatia’s deficit following goals from George Puscas and Ianis Hagi for the Romanians.
But Tudor Baluta’s 66th-minute strike and another in stoppage time from Adrian Petre sealed a comfortable 4-1 win for England’s next opponents.
Vlasic’s Croatia tackle France on Friday.
Cuco Martina’s Curacao, meanwhile, were beaten 1-0 by El Salvador in the countries’ opening CONCACAF Gold Cup fixture.
The match in Jamaica was settled by a Nelson Bonilla strike in first-half stoppage time.
Everton defender Martina, who ended last season on loan in Holland with Feyenoord following a similar stint at Stoke City, captained Curacao and completed 90 minutes.
Martina’s team now travel to America for a meeting with Honduras in Houston on Friday.
Curacao complete their group campaign in Los Angeles against Jamaica on Tuesday 25 June and need a top-two finish to advance to the competition’s last eight.
