James Milner believes that England Under-21, who have not lost in 90 minutes in three years, will have wasted all their hard work in eliminating Portugal, one of the Continent's best teams at this level, if they do not overcome Wales in their European Under-21 Championship play-off.

As the teams meet at Ninian Park for the first leg this evening - the second leg is at Villa Park on Tuesday - Stuart Pearce upped the ante by admitting that his role will be reassessed if his team are knocked out. “I love doing this job and I don't want it to end on Tuesday,” the England Under-21 head coach, who signed a two-year contract after the 2007 finals, said last night. “The position is due to be reviewed next summer, but if we don't go through, that'll change.”

With the stakes in reaching an increasingly high-profile tournament getting higher, Milner urged his team-mates to maintain the professionalism that has characterised their rise during his four years in the team.

The £12million Aston Villa winger, who is the record cap holder for England Under-21 after 38 appearances, scored at Wembley last month when England beat Portugal 2-0 to win their group and qualify for these play-offs. “We have already put out a top team who would have been rated one of the favourites,” Milner, 22, said. “But that would mean nothing if we failed to get through. The Wales game will be very tough. If we were to go on and win the trophy, that would be fantastic. People say there is no young talent coming through, but I'd disagree with that. I can't remember the last time we lost in open play.”

That may be because Milner missed the game, when Peter Taylor's side lost 2-1 away to France in November 2005 - and 3-2 on aggregate - at this stage of the tournament. The under-21s went on to beat Germany in the play-offs two years ago and came within a penalty shoot-out of last year's final in the Netherlands.

Milner knows that players such as Gabriel Agbonlahor, his Villa team-mate, who lost his phone and went missing last summer, will want to be on the plane to Sweden in June. “Gabi is like all of us,” Milner said. “You want to play at the higher level, but we also want to be part of this championship.”

Wales (possible; 4-4-1-1): O fon Williams - N Eardley, D Blake, Mike Williams, R Wiggins - S MacDonald, J Collison, J Allen, N Adams - A Ramsey - S Church.

England (possible; 4-3-3): J Hart - M Mancienne, S Taylor, D Wheater, M Cranie - M Noble, L Cattermole, T Huddlestone - J Milner, G Agbonlahor, A Johnson.

Referee P Balaj (Romania).

TV Live on Sky Sports 1 (kick-off 7.45pm).