Noel Blake names his squad for this month's European Championship Finals.
UEFA European U19 Championships
The Finals
18-30 July 2010
Normandy, France
Click here for fixtures
By Nicholas Veevers England U19s Head Coach Noel Blake has named his squad for the European U19 Championship Finals, which begin in northern France next week.
The Young Lions will take an 18-man squad to Normandy, where they will be hoping to go one further than last year's competition when they reached the Final only to be pipped by hosts Ukraine.
There are four players from that squad who are included again in Matthew James, Matthew Briggs, Declan Rudd and Nathan Delfouneso, who won the Golden Boot award in Donetsk twelve months ago.
After a positive level of co-operation from the players' clubs, the squad will meet up next Monday for a few days of training before heading to France on Thursday ahead of their Group A opener with Austria in Flers on Sunday 18 July, which is being screened live on Eurosport.
Further games will follow against Netherlands and hosts France, before the top two nations from each group will progress to the Semi-Final on Tuesday 27 July and then the winners of those games will contest the Final in Caen on Friday 30 July.
Group B in France will be made up of Spain, Portugal, Italy and Croatia.
England qualified for the Finals after finishing on top of their group in two separate rounds, starting last October with First Round victories over Finland, Slovenia and Slovakia and then finally in the Elite Round in May, when Blake's side saw off competition from Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Republic Of Ireland to seal a place in the last eight of this tournament for the third successive season.
The teams involved will also be battling for a place in next year's FIFA U20 World Cup in Colombia, with the top six teams out of the eight qualifying for that competition as European representatives.
Squad in full:
Name
|
Club |
Nathan Baker |
Aston Villa |
John Bostock |
Tottenham Hotspur |
Matthew Briggs** |
Fulham |
Reece Brown |
Manchester United |
Stephen Caulker |
Tottenham Hotspur |
Nathaniel Clyne |
Crystal Palace |
Thomas Cruise |
Arsenal |
Nathan Delfouneso |
Aston Villa |
Ryan Donaldson |
Newcastle United |
Matthew James |
Manchester United |
Jason Lowe* |
Blackburn Rovers |
Jacob Mellis |
Chelsea |
Lee Nicholls |
Wigan Athletic |
Frank Nouble |
West Ham United |
Dean Parrett |
Tottenham Hotspur |
Matthew Phillips |
Wycombe Wanderers |
Declan Rudd |
Norwich City |
Josh Thompson |
Celtic |
* Withdrawn injured and replaced by Ryan Noble of Sunderland.
** Withdrawn injured and replaced by Scott Malone of Wolves.