29 April 2005  
England U17s Tournament Preview


The England U17 squad have already met up in preparation for the forthcoming UEFA European U17 Championship, which starts in Italy on 05 May.

Having named a strong 18-man squad for the tournament, coach John Peacock is in confident mood ahead of the first game against Belarus, with his options in attack an obvious strength of the squad.

To add to the normal striking combination of Hogan Ephraim of West Ham and Blackburn's Joe Garner, James Vaughan of Everton has come through and impressed in the European Championship qualifiers last month.

"I'm blessed now with two very, very good no.9s," Peacock said. "When you are working five games in ten or eleven days and three games in six days we need to rotate players round.

"So as I say we are blessed and I'm sure they'll all get an equal representation."

Central defender Michael Mancienne, who captained the side in the qualifiers in March, was bullish when asked about England's chances in Italy.

"To be honest, I think we can win the tournament," says Mancienne. "We've got a good squad of players [with] a lot of ability and hopefully we should go far in the tournament."

The match against Belarus is quickly followed by games against Turkey and Italy with the top two sides in the group going through to the semi-finals.

TheFA.com will have all the latest news from inside the England camp throughout the European U17 Championship.

James Vaughan - Video Vault

28 March 2005  
Goal v. Northern Ireland

30 March 2005  
Goal v. Republic of Ireland

Joe Garner - Video Vault

26 March 2005  
Goal v. Serbia & Montenegro

Michael Mancienne - Video Vault

28 March 2005  
Goal v. Northern Ireland

Theo Walcott - Video Vault

26 March 2005  
Goal v. Serbia & Montenegro

30 March 2005  
Goal v. Republic of Ireland