It’s ideal ten for Roy’s England

England sealed their place at Euro 2016 last month and never remotely looked like squandering the chance of joining France (1992 and 2004 qualifying), Czech Republic (2000), Germany and Spain (both 2012) as the only countries to achieve a ideal qualifying record.

England’s group may have been the easiest in qualifying, but the achievement should not be sniffed at, and the likes of Barkley, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Adam Lallana showed glimpses of class against a weak yet stubbornly-well organised Lithuania side.

It is also the first time England have gone through qualification, in its current format, without dropping a point.

“It’s quite incredible for the players to give that sort of performance in their first appearance or after just a few games”, Hodgson said.

Everton centre back Jagielka, 33, will captain England on his 38th appearance and hopes to mark the occasion with a win.

Ross Barkley and an unfortunate own goal from Lithuanian goalkeeper Giedrius Arlauskis gave England a comfortable 2-0 lead in the first half.

“These players in Vilnius, I am sure they will feel they have done enough to keep their names in the front of my thinking and that is all I can ask from them“.

The only confirmed starters are Jack Butland in goal, Phil Jones, Jagielka, Jonjo Shelvey and Jamie Vardy and it is expected that the manager will make eight changes from the team that defeated Estonia on Friday night to guarantee England would also be seeded at the finals. These have already been decided by group, but we’ll see where the nations are drawn. “When I thought of the group in June, and what it was going to be like in October when we play our final two matches, there would have been six or seven who would have been with us”.

Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has urged his England counterpart Roy Hodgson to exercise caution in introducing Dele Alli to the England set-up.

And he conceded England will probably have a better idea of what their realistic ambitions should be in the finals once those matches have been played.

“We have spoken about the (artificial) surface – yeah, it will be different, but a lot of us have trained or even played on similar surfaces”. We are very proud.

“If we go to the Euros and we don’t make it to the later stages, at least it would be a great experience for them, and they’ll come back ready to go again when the World Cup comes around”.