Pearce hails Under-21 progress

Stuart Pearce hailed his England side after they reached the play-offs for the 2009 Euro Under-21 Championship by beating Portugal 2-0.

The Under-21 coach watched on as Aston Villa new boy James Milner's 44th-minute penalty put the side ahead in their first competitive fixture played at Wembley.

And his club team-mate Gabriel Agbonlahor grabbed the second in a man-of-the-match display, despite suffering with a stomach bug ahead of the encounter.

It means England win Group Three and enter into a yet-to-be-drawn two-legged play-off match to try and secure a place in the finals in Sweden next summer.

Pearce said: "We knew from the offset that this would be the most difficult campaign anyone has to go through to reach a finals.

"But if we can get through the play-offs we know there are only seven teams standing in our way in Sweden next summer.

"Our first port of call was to get through this group, which we knew would be tough and proved to be so.

"We've got out the group and now we'll wait on next Friday's draw to see where that takes us.

"We're pleased we've topped the group but it means nothing to us at the moment. We want to win the tournament next summer."