Lions to face Azzurrini

England v Italy
U20 International Friendly
Tuesday 31 March 2009, kick-off TBC
Loftus Road, Queens Park Rangers FC

With the FIFA U20 World Cup Finals taking place later this year in Egypt, England’s U20 side will start their preparations for the competition by taking on Italy in a friendly game in March.

The Young Lions qualified for the competition following their exploits in last year’s UEFA European U19 Championship Finals in Czech Republic and with the World Cup taking place in September, thoughts are now turning to the build-up.

England will be managed for the game at Loftus Road by Noel Blake, who was part of the coaching staff which travelled with the U19s squad to the European Finals last summer.

The players who were part of that squad will still be young enough to be eligible for the World Cup, along with members of the current U19 squad too so Blake is looking forward to taking charge for this match.

“We have some very good players in this age group, the likes of Daniel Sturridge (pictured above), Freddie Sears and Andy Carroll up front, James Tomkins and Ciaran Clark and Sam Hutchison, if fit, in defence and then people like Jack Clark, Kieran Gibbs and Scott Sinclair,” said Blake.

“All of the lads who were involved in the U19s last season could be involved and we feel we have a decent pool of players to pick from. We feel that if we get all of the players we would like, we could do quite well.”

Italy should provide formidable opposition for England in west London, as they have also qualified for the World Cup after reaching the final of the U19 Championship last July, when they were also in England’s qualifying group.

The teams shared a 0-0 draw back then and the Azzurini are likely to offer a stern challenge again for the Lions.

“We’ll be studying bits and pieces of the Italians in the coming weeks, but obviously we played them in the U19s at the Euros last summer when they were in our group. So we know a bit about them and they know a bit about us,” added Blake.

“I’m sure we will use the game to look at one or two new faces, because if we can’t get all of the players we want, we need to know of more players that we have at least looked at.”