German U19 manager Uli Stielike says his side could be intimidated by the 22,000 crowd at Portman Road tonight. The former West Germany, Real Madrid, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Xamax Neuchatel libero or midfielder says that despite this it will be a good experience for his team.

The crowd is more than five times bigger than England's previous biggest attendance at this level and Stielike says his lads will not be used to it: "This team has never played in front of a crowd as large as this before and it may affect them. Most of them do not play in the first or even second teams for the first professional clubs and most of them are really just semi-professionals. But it will be good preparation for them to experience such an atmosphere for when they play Poland in the European Championship qualifying match. It will help their mental toughness to go through this."

Two of the German side have faced Town sides in the past. Moritz Volz has played against Town's reserve side for Arsenal's second string and was also in the line-up which faced Town's first team in last year's Worthington Cup at Highbury.

Sebastien Kneissl is one of Mick McGiven's charges in the Chelsea reserve side and was recently involved as Town's stiffs beat them 4-0, three of the goals coming from Darren Bent.

Bent and Matt Bloomfield, the two Town men in the England squad, will both play some part as manager Martin Hunter says he will play all 19 of his squad at some point.

As well as the Town players in the squad, one of Kieron Dyer's mates is also involved. Michael Chopra is a player Dyer recently mentioned as having broken all scoring records at Academy U19 level. Another Newcastle man, Jermaine Jenas, is no longer in the squad after being called up to the U21s earlier in the week.

The Germans have been training at AFC Sudbury and are staying at the Stoke-by-Nayland Hotel and Golf Club. Stielike says he has been happy with the facilities provided, however he doesn't expect to be treated quite so well by his hosts on the pitch: "Any game between Germany and England will always be very competitive. This will probably be the same and we can expect a fierce game. But we also hope it will be a fair game."

England squad: Allaway, Ashton, Bent, Bloomfield, Carter, Chopra, Clark, Cooke, Fox, Hoyte, Hylton, Johnson, Lonergan , Morgan, Offiong, Otsemobor, Thomas, Townson and Welsh.

Germany: Gorrison, Fathi, Husterer, Lehmann, Leschinski, Meyer, Wingerter, Cozza, Lahm, Masmanidis, Riether, Schultz, Haas, Volz, Hanke, Krontiris and Schied.

Referee: David Elleray.

Photo: Action Images

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