ANTON Ferdinand said the England U-21 team will go into the
second leg of the European U-21 Championship with confidence after
the first leg saw them draw 1-1with France in front of a record
crowd of over 34,000 at White Hart Lane.
The young Hammers defender earned another international cap to his
growing collection by playing a full 90 minutes, in the game that
saw England come from behind and ensure that honours are most
definitely still even when the two teams meet again on Tuesday.
A fast and frantic game saw the two teams go into half-time at 0-0.
But it was France who took the lead early in the second half,
Anthony Le Tallec side footing home a shot at the near-post.
But England, roared on by what was the biggest crowd ever for an
England U-21 fixture, pushed forward immediately in search of
an equaliser, Darren Bent and Tom Huddlestone both having efforts
cleared off the line.
Anton and the rest of the England defence then did well to ensure
France did not go further ahead by snuffing out chances from the
likes of Franck Ribery, before Peter Taylor's young lions
got the goal that brought them back onto level terms.
Peter Whittingham met substitute Dean Ashton's cross to send
the ball across the face of the goal and Darren Ambrose was there
to put it into the back of the net.
Anton, who has made himself a mainstay in the England U-21 team in
the last couple of seasons now, admitted that while the
second leg is going to be just as tough, everyone is aiming to go
out there and build on what he thought was a top second-half
performance.
Speaking after the game, Anton said: "We can't wait for
the next game. We'll go into it with a lot of confidence and if
we play like we did in the second-half, there's no reason why
we can't beat them in the next match. It was a really
fast game and when they scored, we just had to keep working
hard and knew that our chance would come.
"It was an exciting match and although we had gone behind,
we never wanted to give up, we just kept at our game to get the
goal we needed. It now means it's all square again for the
second leg. There's everything still to play for and we'll
be going there aiming to do our best and win."
The team will begin preparation now for second game,
which is on Tuesday, November 15, at the Stade Marcel Picot,
kicking off at 9pm local time.
While he focuses on Tuesday's game for England, Anton will then
turn his mind back to Club duty later in the week by joining up
with his Hammers team-mates in preparation for the London derby
clash with Spurs next weekend.
Having had a taste of the action on the White Hart Lane pitch
on Friday night, Anton is hoping for a good day when he arrives
there again next Sunday with West Ham.
He smiled: "It's a big game, a London derby and I'm
really looking forward to it, we all are."