James Milner is anticipating an occasion to savour when England go head-to-head with Wales in the European Championship on Thursday.

The Liverpool vice-captain and his club colleagues Adam Lallana, Jordan Henderson, Nathaniel Clyne and Daniel Sturridge will come up against fellow Anfield teammates Danny Ward and Joe Allen in Lens.

And Milner believes the familiarity between the two squads will make for an absorbing encounter.

He told FATV: "Obviously it's going to be tough. It's a very different game to the first one. We all know each other very well, both sets of players, so it'll be an interesting game.

"It's perhaps more the type of game that we're used to playing week-in, week-out but with a tournament atmosphere and it's going to be a special occasion."

England will go into the game aiming to overcome the frustration of being held to a 1-1 draw by Russia on Saturday evening. Wales, meanwhile, got their tournament off to a fine start by defeating Slovakia 2-1.

Nevertheless, Milner is adamant the Three Lions can derive plenty of positives from their display in Marseille.

He continued: "I think if you look at all the other games in the tournament so far, only one has really stood out and [we] put in a really good performance.

"We did that and stood out. We played a positive round of football, but ultimately didn't get the result. We have to make sure we are a bit more ruthless. Hopefully we can get all three points in the next game.

“Obviously the whole group is disappointed [after the first game], but it's important in a tournament situation to get over it quickly.

"Ultimately it was a good performance and that's the way football is sometimes. The three friendlies we played before the tournament, we didn't play particularly well, but we won every game.

"[We] played pretty well in the first game of the tournament, but we don't get the points. That's the disappointing thing, but there are plenty of positives and we have to bounce back very quickly, get over it and look forward to the next game."