Stuart Pearce believes his England U-21s need to win both of their remaining games to reach the knockout stage of the European Championships.

A depleted Young Lions side were comfortably beaten by Italy 1-0 in their Group A opener in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.

Capitalising on the confusion surrounding a Craig Dawson disallowed goal early in the second half, the Azzurrini won courtesy of Lorenzo Insigne’s fine free-kick.

The result leaves England bottom of the group after matchday one and in need of a result against Norway in Petah Tikva tomorrow, before taking on hosts Israel next week.

“The way I look at it now we’re probably in a three-team group, us Norway and Israel, and they’ve probably got the march on us because of the point they’ve both got,” England U-21 coach Pearce said.

“I think probably we’ll have to win both games, without a doubt, but that’s tournament football: it’s unforgiving. We have to be strong enough and man enough to say we were beaten by a better team and we need to improve.”

The defeat also highlighted the lack of options available to Pearce, with the likes of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Phil Jones and Danny Welbeck instead utilised by the senior team.

That is not a problem that Italy counterpart Devis Mangia has, starting several regular full internationals in Tel Aviv.

“This has been a very good result to start the tournament but we have not done anything yet,” Mangia said.

“The players added to the squad, like Verratti and Destro, have joined in with the team spirit. Verratti is an intelligent guy and from the very first training session he has joined in with the team.

“Once again I want to thank (senior team coach) Cesare Prandelli for allowing him to join me here.”

Played yesterday

Group B

Spain vs Russia 1-0

Holland vs Germany 3-2

Tomorrow

Group A

England vs Norway 18.00

Italy vs Israel 20.30