The Burnley striker led the line admirably at club home Turf Moor, against a team who came into the match on the back of a 15-game unbeaten run.
But his sixth-minute opener and killer third goal after the break made it 11 straight wins for Gareth Southgate’s side in front of a crowd pleased to see three of their players involved.
England U21s 3-1 Portugal U21s
International U21s Match
7.45pm, Thursday 13 November 2014
Turf Moor, Burnley FC
Live on BT Sport
"I knew it was going to be a good night to play in front of my club and the town," said Ings, who was joined in the England team by Burnley loanees Michael Keane and Nat Chalobah.
"It was a really good turn-out as well, so a big thank-you to them but the important thing was that we worked hard tonight and got the result and we did that.
"I feel like I’ve been a lot sharper since I came back from my hamstring injury and my form has been getting better and better.
"So hopefully I can take the two goals back to club level and get the confidence to score more."
Ings was a livewire throughout on his third start for the Three Lions and it didn’t take him long to get the Turf Moor crowd on their feet.
A second-minute run almost led to an early goal before he broke the deadlock soon after by finishing off a good team move from England.
England Under-21s and Burnley striker Danny Ings chats about his two goals at Turf Moor
And the 22-year-old paid tribute to his team-mates, with the likes of Nathan Redmond and Tom Ince providing a regular source of ammunition.
"The wingers were fantastic tonight and put in some lovely balls for me and it was important that I got in between centre-halves to cause as many problems as I could," he added.
"They had spells in the game when they kept the ball extremely well, but that was a good thing because we’ve been used to playing teams with not as much quality.
"It was an open game tonight, they had a lot of possession but you could see we looked dangerous on the counter attack.
"These are the sort of games that we need in the build-up to the tournament, as we’ve played teams with not as much quality with all due respect.
"So it’s important that we get a lot of competitive games to really test ourselves and to see the different shapes that we can play."
The squad will now head to Brittany at the weekend, where they will take on France Under-21s in Brest on Monday evening.
