England will play Portugal in their only friendly before the start of the Euro2004 qualifiers in October. The game against the Euro2004 hosts will take place at Villa Park.
You might like to see:- http://www.angelfire.com/sc/englandA/980422_Portugal.html for details. No idea whether we can repeat that performance though
England V Portugal 7/9/02 - Squad announced James (West Ham), Robinson (Leeds); Mills (Leeds), Ashley Cole (Arsenal), Bridge (Southampton), Ferdinand (Man Utd), Southgate (Middlesbrough), Woodgate (Leeds); Beckham (Man Utd), Butt (Man Utd), Dyer (Newcastle), Sinclair (West Ham), Murphy (Liverpool), Gerrard (Liverpool), Hargreaves (Bayern Munich), Bowyer (Leeds), J Cole (West Ham), Owen (Liverpool), Heskey (Liverpool), Smith (Leeds). Both Bowyer and Woodgate make it in. Predictable, really, but still a move in the right direction. Presumably Robinson will pick up his first senior cap at some stage in this game.
For another thread, perhaps, but anyone else find it sad that England has 9 midfielders but just 3 strikers from which to choose (one of whom is Heskey, so, 2 in all seriousness)?
It's not that they only had three to choose from, it's Sven's decision not to call up a full squad. It's only 19 men. Growler is injured, Sheringham is being rested, Vassell is injured, Defoe is with the U-21's. We could have had the full complement of five strikers in the squad, but why bother? It's only a pointless friendly.