Sven Selects Smith & Neville

Gary's brother, Phil, has been omitted from the 23-man squad so too has Birmingham striker Emilie Heskey.

In replace of the former Liverpool front-man is Spurs forward Jermaine Defoe following his rich vein of goal scoring form in the Premiership.

England firstly take on Austria in Vienna on Saturday before moving onto Chorzow in Poland next Wednesday.

Swede Eriksson comments after he confirmed his selection, saying: "I hope the form of the players is going to be the same as it was against Ukraine."

"If we play like that I think we have a very good chance of two very positive results."

"It's very important that we play in Germany in 2006 - that's the aim."

He added: "Absolutely every qualification game has been very difficult and very tight - that's international football."