Baines eyes knock-out

Leighton Baines says his England team-mates have two incentives ahead of their crunch clash with Italy on Thursday night.

The young Lions were disappointed to draw 0-0 with the Czech Republic in their first game of the tournament but were given a boost when Serbia upset Italy 1-0.

Those two results mean England can knock Italy out and take a step towards the Semi-Finals with victory tonight.

"We know it’s going to be a massive game and, with a win, put a good team out of the competition, so that’s a good incentive for us," said the Wigan star.

"But we’ve only just faced them recently and know what a good team they are.

"There’s a lot of quality throughout the two groups, but being able to knock out a team like Italy will give ourselves and the other sides a better chance of lifting the trophy."

Baines played at left-back during the stalemate on Monday but on reflection he feels the point could prove important.

"We were a bit disappointed after the game but when we saw Italy lose it gave us a bit of a boost because we thought they’d be our main rivals for the group," he added.

"Their defeat put it into perspective, it wasn’t anything like a disaster and we’ve still got a great opportunity to go on and qualify from the group.

"Every knows we can play better and we’ve proved that in the games coming into the tournament. I think we know we can go up another level and hopefully we can do that in the latter stages of the tournament."

Baines, whose 25 yard screamer against Germany last October helped pave England's path to the European Championships, expects Italy to be a different proposition from the Czechs.

"We’d like another clean sheet and if we do that we know we’ll have a chance," he said.

"Maybe going forward if we can do that bit more. The Czechs made it very difficult for us, as soon as they lost possession they got players back behind the ball.

"I think the Italians are more likely to come at us a little bit, which will give us more licence to go forward on the counter attack."