United's Neville looks forward to Euro 2000

Gary Neville, England and Manchester United defender has had a up and down season coping with injury, United’s exit from the much hyped Club World Championship, a quarter final exit from the Champions League and finishing off the season with a Premiership medal.

Neville speaking from England’s training camp at Burnham Beeches still has much to play for, though, as this summer’s Euro 2000 looms. How does he feel as the championships approach?

Gray Neville "Obviously there is a lot of talk. There has been a big gap between the last game and obviously meeting up now, which I think is the right way to do it, because I think in the past we've had bad experiences at playing internationals in April, where you get a lot of pullouts, so I think it is the right thing to do and now everyone is fresh, looking forward to the summer."

How does he feel about the game against Brazil, the biggest team in the world?

" I think, to be honest with you, it's been the way, really, of Kevin Keegan since he has come into actually have the best opposition available, the best opposition to play against. We played Argentina, Brazil, Ukraine, fantastic teams, and I think that is the best way to I think in the past.

"I think leading up to the World Cup I think we played Saudi Arabia, we played an African team, Belgium, and you are not really tested in the sense that, you know, you are going to go and play against the best teams in the world. We are going to play against the best teams in Europe and none of them are going to be as good as the team on Saturday, that is a fact."

It’s not the first time that Neville has played against a Brazilian team this year, given United’s appearance at this year’s Club World Championships.

"At the end of the day, my experience against Brazilians has been -- my second game for England was against Brazil. This season, I haven't had the greatest of experiences, but at the end of the day that is the way it goes, isn't it? There have been experiences good and bad down the years against Premiership opposition."

How will Neville handle Roberto Carlos?

" I don't know, really. I do know, but at the end of the day I think I handled him pretty well out in Madrid, which you would say is probably the worst atmosphere to play against him in. At home, I didn't have a problem playing against Roberto Carlos.

My problem is in the game at Old Trafford nothing to do with Roberto Carlos, it was to do with myself and me own lapse in concentration. I've played against him two or three times and never found it to be a problem, and I'm sure David scored a great goal at Old Trafford and I'm sure he won't have a problem. He went past him to score that goal."

Is Neville confident of making coach Kevin Keegan’s final 22 for Euro 2000.

"Yes, I am confident at making the 22. I think obviously there has been a lot of speculation in the last three or four weeks. All I can do is play football and I am here to play football this week and next week and like. The other 27 players in that squad will be hoping that their name is amongst the 22 that Kevin Keegan names."

Does Neville think that too much expectancy as regards England’s chances this summer has a detrimental effect on the team?

"Well, I would prefer it if you were all against us, to be honest with you. I mean, that's sometimes, I think, the best way for us to be. Sometimes you're better off going into the championships on a low.

My experience is I've only got experience of two championships, European championships in '96, where everybody was against us, and we performed fantastically well, went into the World Cup and everybody was saying 'We're going to win it, we're going to do this, we're going to do that' and it went the other way, we didn't perform brilliantly well.

People have said we come back to a hero's welcome. At the end of the day, we were beaten by Romania, and we were knocked out against Argentina, so at the end of the day you cannot regard that as a success. I think sometimes we are better when the chips are down, people are against us, not necessarily you guys, but when there's not a lot of expectancy. I think maybe this time there isn't as much expectancy as the World Cup, because of the fact we didn't qualify brilliantly well."

Does Neville think that he has improved as a player since the France World Cup in 1998?

"To be honest with you, my best games for England have been in the major championships. I do not say that in -- I know that for a fact. I've found that my performances for England in friendly games haven't been wonderful. I mean, they've been okay and they've been to a decent standard, but my best experiences were in Euro '96 and in the World Cup, and that's where I believe -- people have questioned whether they'll actually get into the 22.

I honestly believe that obviously the manager will pick the team, the manager will pick the squad, I honestly believe I will end up in the team. That's my belief, never mind getting in the 22."

How does Neville feel about England’s group in the European Championships?

"Well, I played against Portugal twice now and we've beaten them twice. I think Portugal -- I just think the players that we've got in our squad, the experience through the squad, stands us in better stead than those teams, maybe not Germany. Germany always are fantastic, but I don't think there's anybody to fear in that -- don't get me wrong, on their day, they can beat us with the players that Portugal have got. I mean you look at their forward line of -- I think Figo will end up playing left win. I think Conceicao will be right, Pinto and Costa will feature.

"I've had experience of all these players. If they click on the right day -- but in that you also see a weakness that they've got to be exposed defensively and with the players we will have upfront, we've got Beckham, Scholes, Owen, Heskey, Shearer, there's got to be goals there, there's got to be goals.

"Then Romania, I think in the World Cup again we were -- I think we saw the best of Romania, you saw a poor performance by England, hopefully, we've got to perform well to win. If we perform well I'm sure we can win those three games."

What about Germany?

"That's just going to be one hell of a battle I think to be honest with you. I think there's going to be so much riding on the game."