Belgians play to their principles

Belgium coach Marc Van Geersom is sticking to his principles as England, Serbia and Montenegro and Northern Ireland visit for UEFA European Under-19 Championship Elite round Group 6.

Technical approach
Belgium reached these finals in 2002 and 2004 and progressed from this season's qualifying round with victories against the Faroe Islands and Sweden before losing to Hungary. Van Geersom, however, has an explanation for that final-day defeat, telling uefa.com: "We had won the first two matches, and had already achieved our goal of qualification, so we maybe lacked some sharpness. Physically we dropped a little against the Hungarians; that is sometimes a problem for us as we rely more on technical and tactical aspects. We will not change our system for the Elite round, we always play a 4-3-3 with only minor alterations if needed."

Elite ambition
While obviously keen to earn a place in this summer's finals in Poland Van Geersom, whose players began the season with a 3-2 loss against England, admits his side have already reached the target he initially set for them. "Our goal is always to reach the Elite round for the experience the players gain from that. Qualification for the final tournament is never a goal in itself, but obviously it will be an extra bonus. We know a lot about all three of our opponents and the key match is our first, against England; you can never afford to lose that."

Final setback
England reached the final a year ago, losing 3-1 to France in Belfast, and two members of that squad, Lee Holmes and David Wheater, are involved again this time round. A strong advocate of the benefits of international competition at youth level, Hunter is hoping his current crop of talent will rise to the challenge, saying: "This is a great opportunity for the players. We will be playing three very different sides; Northern Ireland will be just like a local derby, Belgium have home support and Serbia and Montenegro will want revenge for our semi-final victory against them last year. The style of football that each play is very different and the players will have to adapt, but this is exactly the kind of test you need at this age."

Serbo-Montenegrin strengths
The Serbo-Montenegrins lost 3-1 to England in the last four in July 2005, and coach Miodrag Radulović must make do without FK Napredak midfielder Milan Projić although defender Goran Adamović, of FK Crvena Zvezda, is expected to recover from a broken arm to feature. "We are in the strongest group," Radulović acknowledged. "Belgium and England have tradition and quality and Northern Ireland always play hard. But I'm just thinking about my team and our strengths; I'm am optimist and believe that we have enough power to find a way to the finals."

Donaghy determination
Radulović's Northern Ireland counterpart Mal Donaghy led his side into a first U19 finals on home soil last summer and hopes that experience has made his players hungry for more. "Playing in the finals gave them a taste of what's round the corner if we can get through," the former Manchester United FC defender told uefa.com. "It's important to test yourself against the best and if we can do that in a European Championship, so much the better. We're the underdogs and under no illusions but we put out Italy in the qualifying round. We've got stickability and we're going to make it as difficult as we can for the other teams. It's going to be very hard, and I think there'll be a few surprises."

Additional reporting by Aleksandar Bošković and Andrew Haslam