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Theo Walcott will come straight into the England side to play Finland in their opening European Under-21 Championship match.

The Arsenal winger started both of the senior team's World Cup qualifiers against Kazakhstan and Andorra earlier this month.

Under-21 manager Stuart Pearce has defied the fears of burnout from Walcott's club manager Arsene Wenger and has pressed the pacy 20-year-old into immediate action in Halmstad.

Aston Villa's James Milner will also start after dropping down from the senior ranks, while Joe Hart, Michael Mancienne, Micah Richards and Gabriel Agbonlahor have all been selected for at least one full England squad.

The man in form, however, is Kieran Gibbs, also of Arsenal. The left-back scored twice in a superb all-round performance against Azerbaijan last week and will hope to pose a similar threat against the Finns.

Pearce's experienced side should have too much for tournament outsiders Finland whose best player, Tim Sparv, is a former Southampton team-mate of Walcott.

Failure to collect three points could be fatal for England, who must face Germany and tournament favourites Spain in their other Group B matches, with the top two qualifying for the semi-finals.

Follow live minute-by-minute coverage of every European U21 Championship match, starting with England v Finland at 17:15 and Spain v Germany at 19:45 on Monday!

Alex Chick / Eurosport