A glimpse into the future? Could Arsenal’s Ainsley Maitland-Niles one day play a part in helping England into the World Cup final? Well, that’s for another time, the immediate aim for the Gunners midfielder is to help his country to success in South Korea and then force his way into Arsene Wenger’s plans next season, seeing where this takes him.
In the meantime Maitland-Niles will hope to play his part in leading England’s U20 side to World Cup glory in Sunday’s final against Venezuela, who beat Uruguay, as he did in Thursday’s semi-final win over Italy.
The impressive Maitland-Niles, who was on the substitutes a few times last season having impressed on loan with Ipswich in the Championship during the previous campaign, played the full 90 minutes as England recovered from a goal down, Riccardo Orsolini put Italy ahead early on, to beat the Italians 3-1.
Maitland-Niles wasn’t on the scoresheet but played the full 90 minutes as a brace from Liverpool’s Dominic Solanke, who will officially head to Merseyside from Chelsea next month, and Everton’s Ademola Lookman secured the win.
All being well the Arsenal midfielder will start again for Paul Simpson’s side, helping England to World Cup glory in South Korea in a few days time.
