Pearce praise for players

2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship Qualifier
9pm, Tuesday 20 November 2007
Agueda, Portugal

Stuart Pearce was proud of his players after seeing them come from a goal behind on Tuesday night to take a well-earned point in Portugal.

The England Under-21s Coach was without a number of key players through injury, and also lost his forward pairing of Matt Derbyshire and Gabriel Agbonlahor on the morning of the game.

Within three minutes, their 100% record this qualifying campaign was in jeopardy as Vieirinha converted a penalty. But the Young Lions fought back to dominate large parts of the game, found themselves level through Adam Johnson's strike early in the second half and were unlucky not to go home with all three points.

"I can name 14 players who were unavailable, six of whom were forwards," said Pearce

"Theo's worked tirelessly up front on his own. We had a 17-year-old left back, Joe Mattock, come in and perform well, Adam Johnson and Lee Cattermole also getting their first starts this week, so I couldn't be more proud of them, I'm just disappointed they didn't win the game.

"We probably started a little bit nervous and we gave ourselves an uphill battle giving the penalty away so early.

"The more the game went on we grew more confident, looked more galvanised and were more comfortable.

'"We played extremely well on the counter-attack. Theo's pace and power was a problem for them, there was a couple of times when he was fouled but he stayed on his feet and went past two or three players, he was a handful all night."

Even though England dropped their first points in qualifying, Pearce was pleased to get a draw against tough opponents to keep them six points clear in the table and maintain their unbeaten start.

Two matches now remain for the Three Lions, while Portugal have a game in hand. But with the ten group winners, plus the four best runners-up going through to the Euro 2009 play-offs, Pearce believes a victory at home to Ireland in February will be enough.

"If you ask us before the game if we'd be happy with a draw, the answer would have been yes," revealed Pearce.

"Both teams played well and gave everything they had, it was two good sides battling against eachother. We hope we and Portugal will be there in the Finals.

"We need to beat the Republic, and if we do I think we'll qualify. But we want to stay unbeaten and win our last two games in the group to put a marker down for the rest of the teams.

He added: "Suffice to say, the campaign so far couldn't have gone any better as far as I'm concerned.

"We've conceded one goal in the six games we've played. We've also used various members of the squad and everyone who has come in has played a big part. So I could'nt be happier."

Portugal
1 Ricardo Batista, 3 Nuno André Coelho, 5 Antunes, 15 Gonçalo Brandão, 13 Vasco Fernandes, 6 Paulo Machado, 8 Pelé (18 Celestino, 66), 10 João Moutinho (c), 7 Vieirinha (14 Bruno Pereirinha, 77), 9 João Moreira (20 Tiago Targino, 46), 19 Carlos Saleiro
Subs not used 12 Rui Patrício, 2 Stelvio Cruz, 4 Bruno Pinheiro, 11 Hélder Barbosa
Coach Rui Cacador

Bookings None

England
1 Joe Hart, 2 Craig Gardner, 3 Joe Mattock, 4 Lee Cattermole, 5 Steven Taylor (c) (14 Michael Mancienne, 46), 6 David Wheater, 7 James Milner, 8 Tom Huddlestone, 9 Adam Johnson, 10 Fabrice Muamba, 11 Theo Walcott
Subs not used 12 Matt Connolly, 13 Ben Alnwick, 15 Grant Leadbitter, 16 Andrew Surman, 17 Richard Stearman, 18 Ishmael Miller
Coach Stuart Pearce

Bookings S Taylor 13; Muamba 37, Walcott 81

Officials (all Hungary)
Referee Istvan Vad
Assistants Peter Hegyi and Peter Berettyán 
Fourth official Roland Veizer

Attendance 5,468