England's Young Lions Defeat Spain to Book Semifinal Spot in Sweden

(Photo by Phil Cole/Getty Images)

England qualified for the semi-finals of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship with a 2-0 victory over competition favourites Spain last night in Gothenburg.

Second half goals from Fraizer Campbell and James Milner, who had earlier missed a penalty, saw the young lions qualify for the knockout stage of the tournament with a game to spare.

Stuart Pearce’s side reached the semifinal stage two years in Holland but lost on penalties to the hosts and will be looking to go at least one stage further this time around.

Head coach Pearce made two changes to the side which had struggled to a somewhat undeserved victory over Finland in the opening game with Middlesbrough’s Adam Johnson replacing Theo Walcott and Nedum Onuoha returning from injury in place of the suspended Michael Mancienne at the back.

Yet Spain enjoyed the better of the game to begin with and Onuoha’s tournament almost got off to an inauspicious start when his careless back-pass forced club teammate Joe Hart to scramble across his goalline to prevent an embarrassing own goal.

James Milner was tripped in the box just after the half hour mark after turning Javi Garcia one way and then the other but England’s most-capped player at Under-21 level was denied the opening goal from the resulting penalty.

The winger’s shot was low and hard but goalkeeper Asenjo, man of the match in his country’s opening draw with Germany, proved equal to it by producing a wonderful save low down to his right.

Spain almost took the lead at the start of the second half when Javi Martinez went round Joe Hart who had come out of his box on the left-hand side. Fortunately for England Martinez could only play the ball across goal from the tight angle and Martin Cranie reacted quickest to clear the danger.

The breakthrough eventually came in the 67^th minute at the other end when substitute Fraizer Campbell, on for the injured Agbonlahor, intercepted an attempted back-pass, cut inside the last defender and drilled a left-footed shot low past the ‘keeper.

Six minutes later and the young lions doubled their lead with the help of another substitute, Theo Walcott. The Arsenal youngster used his blistering speed to out-pace the Spanish defence down the left and rolled the ball back as he surged into the box for James Milner to side foot into the net as he atoned for this earlier spot-kick miss.

Pearce’s decision to drop Walcott was a controversial one and will not have been best received by club manager Arsene Wenger who hadn’t wanted him to travel to the tournament in Sweden in the first place.

Having started both recent World Cup Qualifiers for the senior side, Walcott struggled in the fist game of the Under-21 tournament and was replaced at halftime before being dropped for this match.

Pearce, however, can point to the two wins and Walcott’s impact of the bench last night as justified reasons for his brave decision and also received a congratulatory call from Fabio Capello after the match for securing England’s progress in the competition.

Spain, competition favourites at the start of the tournament, must now beat Finland and rely on already qualified England to do them a favour and beat old rivals Germany if they are to make the semi-finals next week.

Spain: 13 Sergio Asenjo, 3 Nacho Monreal, 4 Javi Garcia, 5 Marc Torrejon, 6 Javi Martinez (Xisco, 76), 8 Raul Garcia, 9 Bojan Krkic (Diego Capel, 57), 10 Jose Manuel Jurado, 12 Cesar Azpilicueta, 18 Mario Suarez (Sanchez Pedro Leon, 80), 21 Adrian Lopez

England:  1 Joe Hart, 2 Martin Cranie, 4 Lee Cattermole, 6 Nedum Onuoha, 7 James Milner (Craig Gardner, 84), 9 Gabriel Agbonlahor (21 Frazier Campbell, 39), 10 Mark Noble (c), 11 Adam Johnson (14 Theo Walcott, 62), 12 Fabrice Muamba, 17 Micah Richards, 19 Kieran Gibbs

Group B Results, Fixtures and Standings

Mon 15 June      England 2 – 1 Finland

                        Spain 0 – 0 Germany

Thurs 18 June    Germany 2 – 0 Finland

                        Spain 0 – 2 England

Mon 22 June      Germany vs. England

                        Finland vs. Spain

                        P   PTS

1. England         2   6

2. Germany       2   4

3. Spain            2   1

4. Finland          2   0

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