Squad named for Wembley

Stuart Pearce's side will take on the highly-rated Portuguese side at Wembley on Friday 5 September, kick-off 7.45pm. England currently top the European Championship qualifying group with six wins and a draw. This record looks set to ensure qualification for the Championship play-offs in October.

Pearce said: "The Under-21s is all about developing players as future senior internationals. We wanted to give them an opportunity to play at Wembley as part of that education.

"We’ve had superb attendances around the country to see the Under-21s and, from what the players have achieved this campaign, they deserve to play in front of a big crowd at Wembley.

"With tickets priced very sensibly hopefully we will get plenty of people there to see what should be an exciting game against formidable opposition."

Portugal need victory to stand any chance of overhauling England’s group lead and win a place alongside England in the play-offs for the 2009 Championship in Sweden.

England Under-21s Coach Stuart Pearce said: “We want the transition to the seniors to be as smooth as possible. Taking this game to Wembley is part of that. A lot of the Under-21 players will never have played there before and the experience of playing this game there will help them as and when they step up to the seniors."