The Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford drew a blank on his England Under-20s debut as their Canada counterparts caused an upset with a 2-1 win at Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium.

Rashford, 18, who has had an impressive start to his Manchester United career with five goals in his first eight games, failed to find the target but did set up England’s goal for the Chelsea midfielder Kasey Palmer.

Palmer reduced the deficit in the second half after fine solo goals from Canada’s Kadin Chung and Marco Bustos had put the visitors in control.

Rashford followed up two goals on his first-team debut against Midtjylland in the Europa League in February with a double in his Premier League bow against Arsenal.

He also scored the winner in the Manchester derby and his dream start for United prompted speculation that he could be a late contender for Roy Hodgson’s senior squad for this summer’s Euro 2016 finals.

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But in a conscious bid to take him out of the spotlight, the England Under-21s’ head coach, Gareth Southgate, left him out of his squad for Saturday’s 1-1 draw in Switzerland and Rashford instead joined up with Keith Downing’s under-20s.

Downing’s side fell behind to a superb individual effort in the 13th minute from the Canada left-back Chung, who cut in from the left and advanced to the edge of the penalty area before unleashing a curling shot beyond the goalkeeper, Angus Gunn.

Canada increased their lead in the 68th minute when Bustos fired home from the edge of the area.

Rashford was mostly well marshalled by Thomas Meilleur-Giguere but in the 71st minute Rashford broke free down the right and cut the ball back for Palmer to sidefoot home from 12 yards.