Romania Under 21s 0 - 0 England Unders 21s: England U21s hold firm to qualify for finals

England kept their discipline to reach the Under-21 European Championship finals as they snuffed out Romania in this play-off second leg in Botosani.

Stuart Pearce's men survived more than one first-half scare and missed two good chances of their own, but their 2-1 first-leg win proved enough to book a spot at next summer's tournament in Denmark.

Daniel Sturridge wasted the visitors' best opportunity, while Marius Alexe squandered a glorious chance for Romania as England deservedly held out.

Qualification is no mean feat for a side which has seen many of the stars who reached the final of last year's tournament graduate to the senior set-up.

England's first-leg lead meant they needed only to extend their unbeaten away record at under-21 level, which dated back almost five years.

But there was no sign of them trying to keep it tight in an opening 15 minutes in which both sides could have gone in front.

Sabrin Sburlea set the tone in the first minute with a deflected 20-yard strike which Frank Fielding tipped round the post.

And Chelsea striker Sturridge should have scored just past the 15-minute mark when he raced between two defenders to reach Danny Welbeck's through ball before scuffing his close-range finish too close to Silviu Lung.

Alexe then wasted a glorious chance to put Romania ahead when he skied his left-foot finish from 12 yards after Fielding parried Gabriel Torje's shot.

Fabrice Muamba was fortunate not to concede an early second-half penalty when a foul on Romania's Eric Bicfalvi was deemed to be outside the box.

Torje's corner caused chaos in the final seconds of injury-time but England survived.