GERMANY vs ENGLAND

Germany 1 VS England 1

Monday, 22/06/2009

Kick off 19:45 BST at Halmstad

Germany - Castro 5'

England - Rodwell 29'

Goalscorer hails quality of squad

Monday, 22 June, 2009

Jack Rodwell praises England's strength in depth.

Julian Bennetts

Jack Rodwell paid tribute to the strength of Stuart Pearce’s England Under-21 squad after his goal secured a 1-1 draw with Germany and top spot in Group B of the European Championship.

The Everton midfielder rose highest to plant home a superb first-half header to cancel out Gonzalo Castor’s opener and ensure England head into the semi-final unbeaten.

And Rodwell believes the whole squad deserves huge credit after Pearce made ten changes to the side that beat Spain 2-0 on Thursday.

"It shows the quality of our squad," he said after scoring his second goal for the Under-21s.

"We’ve got some youngsters who did really well, we made changes did well and showed we have a good squad.

"The lads are great, it’s a great bunch and we’re working together; we know it’s a squad game and we’ve got a good squad."

And Rodwell is hugely confident ahead of the semi-finals, where England could play any one of the four sides in Group A, with their final round of games on Tuesday.

He added: "I’m definitely confident, we’ll just play our game and hopefully we’ll get through it."