England defend proud record

Only one nation has qualified for all four UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournaments, and England are bidding to make it five in Elite round Group 7. The team that beat them to the semi-finals last May, Italy, are among the sides striving to stop them.

Big crowds
Russia and Bulgaria are England's other opponents, but the pool hosts begin against the Azzurrini tonight in Huddersfield. As usual, England are expecting a large turnout of fans - more than 8,000 watched them beat Serbia and Montenegro to qualify last year - and coach John Peacock, who has a perfect record in U17 qualifiers, is looking forward to another fine atmosphere. "The reason countries enjoy coming to England is they know they'll be playing in good stadiums and with good crowds," Peacock told uefa.com.

Old rivals
Italy have been rivals throughout Peacock's time as U17 coach, and in September this season's squads faced off, the Azzurrini prevailing 2-1 in Cheltenham to win a four-team event. Peacock said: "Every game has been down to an odd goal and I don't forsee it being any different." But even if England claim victory, there will be two other sides to face. "I've watched Russia and Bulgaria play in recent friendly games, all the nations will be well prepared," Peacock added.

Turkey defeated
England were given a bye to this round, and in October travelled with fellow seeds France to a UEFA-endorsed competition staged by finals hosts Luxembourg, drawing with Les Bleus and defeating the home team. Most recently, in December, they beat Turkey 1-0 with a last-gasp Daniel Sturridge goal.

Tagliani promise
Italy also started the season well. After winning the September tournament in England they completed the qualifying round unbeaten, overcoming Latvia 2-1 and drawing 2-2 with Ireland and Ukraine. However, since then their seven friendlies have yielded four draws and three losses. Full-back Massimiliano Tagliani, who joined ACF Fiorentina from Brescia Calcio last summer and has been compared to Gianluca Zambrotta, is worth watching in a group aiming to better the 2004/05 crop, who finished third in the finals on home soil.

Russian preparations
Russia topped their qualifying section, thrashing Armenia 4-0, drawing 1-1 with Azerbaijan and edging past a talented Israel team 1-0. Aleksandr Prudnikov scored four of those six goals, while young coach Igor Kolyvanov is well-placed for the meeting with Italy, as the former international spent ten years with Bologna FC and Foggia Calcio. Following a training camp in the southern Russian town of Sochi, where they tackled second division club sides in friendlies, the squad had further preparations in France.

Bulgarian optimism
Bulgaria are also coached by a recently-retired player, ex-PFC CSKA Sofia man Filip Filipov, and he is upbeat despite a poor run of warm-up results. "We have recently lost twice against Serbia and Montenegro and drawn twice against Ukraine," he told uefa.com. "But from those games I discerned the backbone of the squad and I am well aware of our qualities - and I know what we have to fix."

Strong opponents
He added: "I have watched several Italy games and they are a very strong team. We played Russia in Kiev last year and lost 3-1 and they are also familiar to us. I have not watched England because they have not played qualifiers, but I am sure they are also very strong." His side qualified with a 4-0 success against Austria - thanks to a hat-trick from Branimir Kostadinov, who has now joined Scotland's Heart of Midlothian FC - a 1-0 defeat by Belgium and a 1-1 draw with Georgia.

Additional reporting by Paolo Meniccuci, Pavle Gognidze & Stoyan Georgiev