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England Under-21 manager Stuart Pearce says he wants to take Theo Walcott to the European Championship in Sweden next summer.

England U21s drew 2-2 with Wales in the second leg of their play-off match at Villa Park to book a place in the tournament in Scandinavia next summer with a 5-4 aggregate success.

After his young side progressed, Pearce was asked if he hoped to take Walcott to the finals.

The Arsenal forward has become an established member of Fabio Capello's senior squad but Pearce admitted he would like it if he dropped back down the Under-21s.

Pearce said: "Of course. Theo has played seven matches in getting us here.

"But I want to talk about the collective of everybody who has played for the Under-21s.

"They have got a fantastic collective between themselves."

Pearce admitted it had been a tense time and was relieved to have qualified.

"We're through," continued the former England defender. "We knew it was going to be two really tough games.

"I think we showed with the spirit and the courage the English team have got why Wales did not want to play us and why we didn't want to play Wales.

"I think it's a shame we are not both going. We've got the finals to look forward to. We feel we are improving, we are getting better."

Midfielder James Milner believes England can now go on to win the European U21 Championship and felt the players could be proud of their efforts.

The Aston Villa player said: "They are a quality team and they made it difficult for us, we knew they would.

"It is disappointing on our part, the goals we have conceded in the two games, it is not like us and that is something to learn from.

"This is a tough wake-up call to show that there is still improvement to be done.

"It was a great performance from the boys, though. It was tough losing a man but we stuck at it and made sure we didn't concede (again).

"It was a great performance to get through and I think we have shown over the group game and these play-off that we have got all you need to hopefully go on and win it."

Welsh counterpart Brian Flynn believed his side did not get their reward but looked positively to the future.

"There were two great games against quality opposition," he told Setanta Sports.

"To be involved at this level, the experience they gained was enormous.

"They deserved to win the game but it wasn't to be.

"When teams go down to 10 men in these sort of games they tend to put the extra effort in and that is what England did.

"But 12 can play in next campaign and that can only augur well for the future."

TeamTalk / Eurosport