Phil Jagielka to captain England in final Euro Qualifier

Sunday 11 Oct 2015
Roy Hodgson

Roy Hodgson has promised to send out an "interesting" team in Lithuania on Monday night as England bid to end their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign with their tenth straight victory. 

Defender Phil Jagielka will wear the armband in the absence of Wayne Rooney and Gary Cahill, and Hodgson has hinted the Everton man will be joined in the team by Jack Butland, Jonjo Shelvey and Jamie Vardy. 

Victory for England will see them finish qualifying with an unprecedented perfect record and the manager believes his new-look team will have a great opportunity to do just that.

Lithuania v England

UEFA Euro 2016 Qualifier
Group E
7.45pm (BST), Monday 12 October 2105
Watch live on ITV 1

"I mentioned Jack [Butland], Phil will captain the team and take the place of Gary Cahill," he confirmed. "We've let James Milner go and we're already without Michael Carrick, who had to leave us through injury and Jack Wilshere is injured, so I mentioned Jonjo Shelvey.

"Jamie Vardy came on the other night and we are probably looking to see him, if not from the start at some stage during the game. 

"We've been fortunate in the sense that we have come through the match on Friday evening unscathed in terms of injuries. 

"We have a very interesting team for Phil to lead out tomorrow, a young team, but players we believe in and we are very conscious of the fact we could have a perfect record if we win the game, but we also know that it's not a given we will win the game. 

"We are playing a team that also wants to win and are adept at playing on the 3G surface that we will be playing on tomorrow evening, so it's a task ahead of us, but we are ready for it and we will do our level best to try and achieve it." 

Roy Hodgson at LFF Stadium

Roy Hodgson smiles as he checks out the 3G pitch at LFF Stadium

Jagielka will captain England for the first time as he wins his 38th senior cap. 

And the 33-year-old hopes his momentous day can be capped off with victory.

"I'm delighted Roy came and found me and broke the news," he said. 

"It's a great honour for me personally, but we've got a big task ahead of us tomorrow. 

Roy Hodgson and Phil Jagielka speak to the press in Vilnius

"We started this campaign a while ago and the job was to try and win every single game. Normally you say that and not a lot of people expect you to do so, but we've put in some great performances along the way and it's nice that we will have the opportunity to do so.

"We know it is going to be a difficult game with a few of the boys going and a few of us getting a bit of an opportunity, whether you've got caps or you've not got too many caps under your belt, this is the opportunity you want. 

"The squad is strong and it's up to us who get the chance tomorrow to go and prove it and put a good performance on."

England's next home game is against Euro 2016 hosts France at Wembley Stadium on Tuesday 17 November. You can get tickets online now via TheFA.com/tickets

By FA Staff