England v France
UEFA European U21 Championship
Play-Off, First Leg
7.30pm, 11 November 2005

The FA can confirm that the first leg of England's UEFA European Under-21 Championship play-off against France will be played at Tottenham Hotspur's White Hart Lane.

The match will be played on Friday 11 November with kick-off at 7.30pm. The return leg will take place on Tuesday 15 November at the 20,000-capacity Stade Marcel Picot in Nancy, in north-eastern France. Kick-off is at 9pm local time (8pm UK time).

England coach Peter Taylor said: "These will be two fantastic matches and I'm delighted to be playing the home leg at White Hart Lane.

"Obviously it's a stadium I know well from my playing days with Tottenham, and is a superb venue for a game of this importance.

"Spurs are very well represented in the Under-21s, with Michael Dawson, Tom Huddlestone, Aaron Lennon, Wayne Routledge and Calum Davenport now all established members of the squad, and I'm looking forward to a fantastic atmosphere on the night.

"France are always strong at all levels and we can expect them to be well-organised, strong and technically very good. We know we'll need to play to our potential to beat them but you have to meet the strongest teams at some point.

"We've had a good qualifying campaign and there is a real togetherness among the players. Some of our attacking play this season has been very exciting and confidence is high. We know we have the ability and self-belief to get the results we need to qualify for the finals."

Spurs defender Michael Dawson, who has 11 Under-21s caps and one goal to his name, said: “Playing for the Under-21s has been one of the highlights of a great year for me.

"Since joining Spurs in January I have enjoyed every minute of my football this year and playing at such a level with a high-quality team has improved my game tremendously.

“The chance to play for England at White Hart Lane is something very special for me. There is a strong Spurs presence in the U21 squad and I know that although Wayne Routledge is recovering from injury, Aaron, Calum and Tom are just as eager as me to get onto the pitch and show the fans what we can do for our country.”

England finished second in Group 6 behind Germany, finishing with 21 points after winning six, drawing three and losing one of their ten group matches.

France won Group 4 which also included Switzerland, Israel, Republic of Ireland and Cyprus, winning six, drawing one and losing one of their eight matches. Coach Rene Girard's squad includes a number of familiar faces to English fans, including Arsenal's Gael Clichy, Liverpool's Florent Sinama Pongolle and Sunderland's Anthony Le Tallec.

The eight play-off winners qualify for next year's Championship, which will run from 25 May to 6 June. The competing countries will be invited by UEFA to host the tournament.

England's all-time record against France at Under-21 level reads won six, drawn three and lost five.

The countries also played each other at Under-20 level in the Toulon Tournament this summer, drawing 0-0 in the semi-final with England going out 4-5 in the penalty shoot-out.

England were coached by Peter Taylor and included several Under-21s players such as James Milner, Tom Huddlestone and Steven Taylor.

England's Path to the Play-offs

Date

Opponents

Venue

Comp

Result

03 Sept 04

 Austria Krems

ECQ

2-0

07 Sept 04

 Poland

Rybnik

ECQ

3-1

08 Oct 04

  Wales

Blackburn

ECQ

2-0

12 Oct 04

 Azerbaijan

Baku

ECQ

0-0

25 Mar 05

 Germany

Hull

ECQ

2-2

29 Mar 05

 Azerbaijan

Middlesbrough

ECQ

2-0

02 Sept 05

 Wales

Wrexham

ECQ

4-0

06 Sept 05

 Germany

Mainz

ECQ

1-1

07 Oct 05

 Austria

Leeds

ECQ

1-2

11 Oct 05

 Poland

Sheffield

ECQ

4-1