England Under-21s and Southampton man hoping to impress against Italy at St. Mary's

Jack Stephens is hoping he gets a chance to impress on home soil on Thursday, for both club and country.

The Southampton defender is in the England Under-21s squad to face Italy on his home ground at St. Mary’s on Thursday evening.

With Euro qualification already secure, competition for places in Aidy Boothroyd’s team is high ahead of next summer’s Finals in Poland.

And Stephens is focused on making the most of any opportunities to catch the eye, even more so if selected to play at St. Mary’s, where he’s also hoping to make a first-team breakthrough, something which cost him a place in the first U21 squad of the new season having been a regular under Gareth Southgate prior to that.

“Every time you get an opportunity to play it’s about doing your best and trying to force your way into the starting team,” said Stephens.

“Obviously I was disappointed to miss out on the first [England] meet-up of the season in September but I understood the reasons for it and just had to take it on the chin and work hard to get back in, which fortunately I did for the games with Kazakhstan and Bosnia.

“It was great, having qualified in Kazakhstan, for the gaffer to change the team and give us all a chance to show what we could do, so it was important to put in a performance and give him something to think about coming into the games this week and for next summer. 

“It’s going to be difficult because there’s so many good players who could also be picked, but you’ve just got to take that chance and try to impress.”

The former Plymouth Argyle youngster is especially looking forward to pitting his wits against the likes of Italy, who will be joining England at the finals next July, and France who will be the opponents on Monday.

After progressing through qualifying against the likes of Norway, Switzerland, Kazakhstan and Bosnia & Herzegovina, the whole squad are now hoping to be put to more of a test against their next opponents.

“They’re the sort of games which will put us in good stead for next summer,” he admits. 

“We’re going to be playing similar quality teams to that, so it will be good to see where we are at the moment and compare ourselves to those sort of teams.”

Fans can buy tickets for Thursday’s game at the St. Mary’s box office on the night, costing just £10 for adults and £5 for concessions.