England have been drawn alongside Republic of Ireland, Netherlands and Norway in the finals of the UEFA European Women’s U17 Championship.
The Young Lionesses made it through two rounds of qualifying to reach the eight-team finals, which will be staged in Czech Republic between 2-14 May.
Head coach John Griffiths led last year’s intake to a third-place finish at the Euros and a subsequent place at the U17s World Cup in Jordan.
And he couldn’t stress enough the value of consistently reaching major finals.
Griffiths said: “It’s so important that these young players keep getting the experience of finals tournaments.
“The stats around cap accumulation at youth level isn’t rocket science. The more international experience we can give players at a younger age, the better equipped they will be to succeed at senior level.
“It’s testament to the player programme we’ve put in place. We keep refining it, it keeps evolving and we’re getting better every year.
“All the changes we put in place a few years ago on the performance side are starting to come to fruition.”
England topped their elite round group after defeating 2013 winners Poland and holders Germany before drawing 0-0 with Italy.
Griffiths added: “It wasn’t easy. We lost 7-2 to Germany in an experimental friendly in January and people might have looked at that and raised their eyebrows.
“But this programme is about delivering when it counts. We knew what the endgame was.”
They will open their finals campaign against Republic of Ireland in Příbram on Tuesday 2 May. They then face Netherlands in Přeštice on 5 May, followed by Norway in Plzeň three days later.
Group A comprises Czech Republic, Germany, Spain and France.
The top two sides in the group will make it through the semi-finals. The final will take place on Sunday 14 May.
Griffiths said: “We have reached two Euro finals in two years, finished third in Europe and got to the quarter finals of a World Cup.
“The implications are that Mo Marley now has a huge pool of players to choose from for the U19s. And hopefully Mark Sampson will have an even bigger pool of players to pick from in the future.
“This group’s achievement of reaching these finals is remarkable and it’s an absolute credit to all the players and staff involved.”
