Junior Starlets keep heads high despite losing on U17 World Cup debut

Junior Starlets star Lorine Ilavonga in action against England. [Harambee Starlets, X]

Junior Starlets midfielder Marion Serenge has urged fans not to lose hope in them after Kenya went down 2-0 to England in their opening match of the 2024 Fifa U17 Women's World Cup in Santiago, Dominican Republic on Friday morning.

Lola Brown converted a penalty to give England a 1-0 lead in the 29th minute following a handball by Diana Anyango.

Lauryn Thompson made it 2-0 for England in the 87th minute after she made a solo run from the midfield before beating Kenya's custodian Velma Abwire with a powerful shot.

"The game was tough, but we picked good lessons from it. It's our first match of the Fifa World Cup and I urge our supporters to be patient. We will definitely bounce back," said Serenge.

"We tried to put our best foot forward but luck was not on our side. We are going back to the drawing board after this to see where it all went wrong."

Kenya meet North Korea in their next match on Sunday, and Serenge is hopeful of making the impossible possible against the Asian side.

"It's a must win encounter for us. So we are going to prepare better, we are going to work on our weak zones, we promise that the results will be better," she reiterated.

Serenge's sentiments were echoed by coach Mildred Cheche who admitted England were tactically superior for her charges but again insisted her girls gave a good account of themselves.

"I don't feel like we lost the game, l feel like the match offered us good tips to carry on in the two remaining fixtures. I'm confident that we are going to give good accounts of ourselves in the remaining games," Cheche stated.

England's coach Natalie Henderson admitted Kenya gave her side a good challenge as she never expected the opponents to put up such a show that restricted her side to a slim 1-0 lead in almost the entire match despite Young Lionesses' massive ball possession.

"It feels good that we got the three points, but Kenya definitely has something. They put my girls to task, their challenge offered a good opportunity for development of my players," Henderson underlined.

England, who are making a third appearance in the showpiece, will tackle Mexico, who lost to North Korea 4-1 in their opening fixture, on Monday.

Though tipped as among this year's championship favourites, England's best ever performance in the tournament is a quarterfinal berth in 2016.

Kenya, hosts Dominican Republic and Ecuador are all making their debut in the tournament that will be expanded to 24 teams in the coming edition.