England Under 21s manager Stuart Pearce was delighted with his side’s ‘gutsy’ performance against Romania.
The Young Lions earned a 0-0 draw to secure a spot in next year’s European Championship in Denmark, after winning the first leg 2-1 in Norwich last Friday.
England defended with heart in Romania and Frank Fielding managed to keep the opponents at bay with some smart stops.
It means the U21s have qualified for three consecutive major finals and Pearce hailed the achievement of his players.
“On Friday we played extremely well; today we didn’t play extremely well,” he said.
“What we did show was determination and it was a really gutsy performance, certainly from the goalkeeper.
“Right through the team, we showed guts and a few things were said at half-time in the dressing room, and the players took that on board.
“We showed some more spirit in the second half of the match and we’re just pleased to be here.
“The 10-day get-together was about getting two results to get to the finals.”
Pearce said of Blackburn keeper Fielding: “He was fantastic. He’s got a knack of keeping the ball out of the net and I think he only conceded one goal in six games.
“There were some really tricky shots today with this ball – we know all about the ball – and they really peppered the goal today.
“He kept his eye on everything and kept us a clean sheet, which is all you can ask of him.
“He’s delivered today and so has the rest of the team.”
Strength
Former England left-back Pearce was apprehensive that his side might not have been able to hold out for a draw, but praised the mental strength of his youngsters.
He remarked: “Sometimes I’m not sure English teams are particularly good at defending leads; I think we come with the mentality that it would be easy and we didn’t put enough energy into our performance.
“Credit to Romania, they went after the game and put us on the back foot and we had to defend stoutly and we were hoping to catch them on the counter-attack.
“But we never got a finishing touch when we did break their backline.
“Make no mistake, it means a lot to those players. I’m fortunate enough to see the camaraderie every day, everything they do around the hotel and on the training pitch as well.
“The players have got a real togetherness about them and when you’ve got that, you take it to the training pitch and away from it and it builds, and when you get a little bit of adversity, like we had today, it manifests itself.
“Credit to them – only the players can generate that amongst themselves. We’ve got eight months to build on going to a major finals.
“I don’t think there’s another major nation that have played at U21 level that have been to three (straight) European finals, so credit to this group and the groups that have gone before them.
“I am really looking forward to working with this group again.”
