Republic of Ireland Under-21 manager Jim Crawford says his squad are looking forward to testing themselves against England when they put their unbeaten Euro 2027 qualifying record on the line in Birmingham tonight (live on RTÉ2/Player).
Ireland have so far drawn with Slovakia and beaten Moldova and Andorra, who they play again on Tuesday.
Only the winners of Group D, which also features Kazakhstan, and the best runner-up from across the nine groups will qualify directly for next year's tournament in Albania and Serbia.
But there are also play-off places for teams finishing second, something Crawford's previous group controversially missed out on this time last year.
"The players are looking forward to playing against a pot-one team," he told RTÉ Sport. "And every group that we've had since I've been in the role, they're looking to test themselves, whether it's against Italy or otherwise. And England's no different.
"We train in St Andrews [home of Birmingham City] today, so that would further increase the players' excitement for the game. We've had team meetings, we've had activities. It's been a good build-up.
"There's certainly a great mood in the camp. Training's been very good. The lads are getting to know each other as each camp goes by.
"We know they're a top, top team. I know it's a different cycle of players, but they've won the European Championships for the last couple of years and I have no doubt that this group that are here now will certainly go extremely close to winning it.
"So, okay, we're underdogs, but we understand with any team, there are strengths and weaknesses. We're looking forward to putting ourselves up against top-class opposition."
Four points would be an excellent return from the trips across the water and to Andorra, who have several senior internationals and only lost 1-0 in both Tallaght and Derby, but Crawford insisted: "You want to go and win every game.
"We've seen areas of England's game that there might be an opportunity to expose.
"In this particular window, we haven't set any sort of [target of] six points, four points or what have you. We'll take both England and Andorra, two extremely different games in their own right, and we'll see what comes of that.
"We have to be practical with it. England are coming up and we'll give everything we can, everything we can to get three points."
Watch England v Republic of Ireland in European Under-21 Championships qualifying on Friday from 7pm on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport.
