England Under-21s have secured their place in the semi-finals of the European Under-21 Championships with a 2-0 win over Spain Under-21s.

With Germany having earlier moved top of the group after beating Finland 2-0, manager Stuart Pearce knew his side would regain control with victory over the Spanish.

After a relatively low-key first half, which saw James Milner miss a penalty, Pearce’s men came back out and goals from substitute Fraizer Campbell and Milner saw off their opposition, who now look like joining Finland on the road home.

Campbell, a first-half replacement for the injured Gabriel Agbonlahor, capitalised on some woeful Spanish defending as Mario Suarez’s misplaced pass sent the Manchester United forward through on goal.

He still had work to do, however, as he cut inside Javi Garcia onto his left foot before drilling an unstoppable shot into the bottom corner past the heroic Spanish keeper Andres Sergio Asenjo.

The introduction of Theo Walcott, who was surprisingly left on the bench, galvanised the English youngsters and he was instrumental in Milner’s strike which effectively wrapped up the points.

Walcott used his electric pace to beat the Spanish defence down the left flank before squaring for Milner, who made amends for his earlier miss, as he thumped the ball past Asenjo.

It was just the response Pearce wanted from Walcott, and Franco Baldini, who was scheduled to attend, will probably send a glowing report back to England boss Fabio Capello.

Pearce will be praised as well because his youngsters are now in the semi-finals, with a Group B match against Germany to spare.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger, who was strongly opposed to his youngster travelling to Sweden after representing the seniors against Kazakhstan and Andorra, cannot complain either as Walcott has only played 75 minutes in the tournament so far.

Pearce battled to keep Walcott in his squad, dismissing fears of burn-out ahead of next year’s World Cup, but then responded by removing the highest-profile player of the tournament after a quiet 45 minutes against Finland.

“Reputations and being well-known count for nothing,” Pearce said on the eve of the finals, and he kept his word by replacing Walcott with Middlesbrough winger Adam Johnson against Spain.

Pearce’s attitude is that players may have to “fall on their sword” for the good of the team, so Walcott started on the bench and Mark Noble retained the captaincy despite the return of Nedum Onuoha from a thigh complaint to replace suspended Michael Mancienne.

As he admits himself, Pearce is still learning as a manager and his decision not to train at the ground almost cost his youngsters an early goal.

Onuoha over hit a backpass, misjudging the pace of the turf, with Joe Hart racing back and clearing on the line. Even then, it required England to hack away as the Spaniards closed in.

Hart also sent a clearance along the floor straight to Javi Martinez, a possible Manchester City target, but the Spain midfielder could not direct his finish. Milner’s crosses appeared England’s most likely route to goal.

The Aston Villa midfielder put one on Agbonlahor’s head which got deflected over, then from the corner Onuoha and Martin Cranie had close-range efforts blocked.

Milner earned and took England’s penalty just after the half-hour mark. Spain lost possession in their own half and Johnson fed through Milner, who twisted his way past Javi Garcia before getting brought down.

It was a well-struck penalty but Sergio Asenjo was down sharply to his right to palm away.

Worse was to follow for England as Agbonlahor had to be taken off six minutes before the break but it was Campbell, not Walcott, who came on.

Hart had a rush of blood to the head 10 minutes after the restart, racing out to meet Martinez even though there was little danger.

The Spain midfielder rolled the ball towards goal and Cranie was needed to clear off the goal line.

There were jeers when Barcelona’s Bojan Krkic was taken off for Diego Capel just before the hour mark, with two of the biggest stars of the tournament on the bench at that stage.

That lasted until the 62nd minute, when Walcott was introduced for Johnson.

Five minutes later, England were ahead.

Milner won the ball in Spain territory and poked the ball through for Campbell, who cut inside Garcia before planting his finish in the bottom corner.

Smoke then came out of the stand at the end Campbell scored in, but the situation appeared to be in control.

Pearce danced down the touchline when Walcott set up the second goal, racing behind the Spain defence by outpacing Garcia, then cutting the ball back for Milner to smash home.

The only sour point was Milner’s late booking, which rules him out of the Germany game although it did appear as though the Villa man knew what he was doing.

Pearce has defended his decision to leave Theo Walcott on the bench in the wake of the winger’s second half demolition of Spain Under-21s.

Walcott’s introduction in the second half of the Group B clash prompted an explosion of life into the team as England opened the scoring just five minutes after he replaced Adam Johnson.

“I felt with the game going to be being stretched in the second half he’d have an impact – he proved me right,” Pearce said after the game.

“But then I know Theo and I know what he’s capable of and little Adam Johnson had done nothing wrong for me.

“He took the sting out of the Spaniards to start with and enabled Theo to come on and put on the virtuoso show that he did.

“I must mention at this stage Theo Walcott’s attitude.

“We spoke before the game about how he answers not being in the starting line up. You know, it’s difficult for him to understand how he’s played for the seniors and then he didn’t start here.

“The only way you answer a managerial team selection is to put in a performance of both attacking and defending that he did and credit to him, but I expected no less from him.”

Frank Lampard has refused to get carried away with England’s impressive form and believes success in South Africa will define their progress. Fabio Capello has a perfect record in qualifying for the World Cup with seven wins from seven games in his first campaign with the latest win a 6-0 drubbing over minnows Andorra.

The win put England 10 points clear of Croatia and Ukraine in Group 6 and their form has prompted many England fans to suggest the squad are well equipped to win the tournament next summer. Lampard netted his second of the campaign in the Andorra rout but has called for calm heads as England near automatic qualification. “Going into the World Cup on good form can be a good thing, as long as we do not get carried away and have the right attitude,” he said.

“As a group we are not overconfident. We are playing well, but we realise there is still a long way to go. “We just need to keep the form going into the World Cup and then get our minds right. “We are scoring regularly, there is a confidence about us and it is important we carry that on and qualify as soon as possible. We have always had good individuals, but now we are playing as a team. After missing out on the European Championship finals last summer, Fabio Capello has restored pride in the national team after a change in personnel and formation rejuvenated the England team.

Lampard came under scrutiny during the last campaign for failing to strike up a working partnership with fellow midfielder Steven Gerrard. The pair failed to gel in the centre of the pitch under former boss Steve McClaren, but Capello’s changes have seen both Lampard and the Liverpool captain operate in new roles. “The manager has tweaked it a little bit and everyone is happy,” said Lampard. “We are both playing slightly different roles than we do for our clubs, but we are happy because we are in a winning team and it is gelling.

“I basically stop a lot more, am playing more of a central role. “The manager wants discipline in the centre of the park. Stevie has more freedom to roll in off the left where he can be very dangerous even though it is not his Liverpool position. The emergence of Gareth Barry as regular in Capello’s side has seen an improvement in the midfield’s performance and Lampard admits that a bond has formed as a result of their good form.

“We were playing well for our clubs week in and week out, but never hurt teams as a group. Now we are. “There is a togetherness about us, you can feel it in training every day, and that is the difference. “At the moment it is all clicking, but we will be judged at the end of the World Cup rather than winning games against Andorra.” “I feel the hunger even more with the more experience I get. I am enjoying my football for both Chelsea and England. “I am feeling more confident and just want to keep playing. There is a big season ahead for me.

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has also benefited from a return to international form as he took his tally to 10 for the campaign against Andorra. England teammate Lampard has hailed the 23-year-old’s form and believes it is down to finding the right balance in his approach play. “Wayne has been up there for quite a while and now he is scoring a few more goals at international level people are sitting up and taking notice. But he is right up there with the best,” said Lampard.

“Maybe he occupied himself a bit much with dropping deep and trying to put people in and do everything. “Now he has found that medium where he is doing that stuff, but also getting in the box on the end of things.”

England footballers are not a bad bunch, you know. Whilst we were all enthusing as the team beat lowly Andorra 6-0 at Wembley, a little known fact might have passed some of us by. Namely, the players were all donating their international fees to the Bobby Moore Fund. The England football team has been involved in an initiative to improve opportunities for young people for the last two years. Whilst we might see TV or newspaper coverage of the stars visiting sick children in a hospital or hospice, there’s little publicity for the more mundane side of their work.

Last season, Rio Ferdinand and Owen Hargreaves launched eleven projects revolving around poor housing, health, education, disabilities, high incidences of crime, racial and drug abuse. Six more have since been added, as well as extending the outreach programme for coaching to individuals and to clubs.

It was more than appropriate that the spotlight fell on the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK during the Andorra match. Before the kick-off, some of the more forgotten stars of England’s 1966 World Cup winning squad finally received their medals after a long campaign. At the time, only the players on the pitch during the final received the accolade.

Sadly, Sir Bobby Moore, who was England captain in 1966, could not be there. But his memory lives on and in the years since his death, more than 12 million pounds has been raised to back the campaign for research. England’s support should be applauded. With the team’s help and involvement, they can undoubtedly increase awareness of bowel cancer and bring in more vital cash. And this, ultimately, will save lives.

It’s a terrible statistic but 44 men and women die every day in the UK of bowel cancer. It is the second highest cause of cancer-related deaths in this country but, if caught early, eight out of ten cases can be successfully treated. Bobby’s widow, Stephanie says he would have been proud to be associated with the national team today.

“Our partnership with the England squad will make a huge difference. By working together, we can beat cancer,” she says. Well done to the England team for dedicating their match fees and their time and commitment to these charities. It means we can be as proud of them off the pitch as on it. *And if you would like to help, visit Bobby Moore Fund or Cancer Help.

As the saying goes, “You can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket.” Well, England are one win away from their ticket to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and it would be a disaster of monumental proportions to blow it now.

They almost guaranteed next summer’s trip with a 6-0 whitewashing over Andorra today (June 10th) at Wembley Stadium in London in their group six qualifier. And once again Wayne Rooney led the way by banging in two more goals. He now has 24 in 52 England matches, 10 in his last seven games for England and eight in seven World Cup qualifying matches. It looked like he could have had a hat trick in the first few minutes if the ball had bounced his way.

Manager Fabio Capello made a few changes from the squad that started last Saturday as David Beckham made played a full 90 minutes and Peter Crouch started up front for a change.

England did something unusual for them as they got off to a good start finally and the Manchester United star opened the scoring in the fourth minute with a fine downward header after being left alone just yards in front of the goal and being picked out by Glen Johnson.

Frank Lampard made it 2-0 in the 29th minute. Johnson then laid in a lovely cross for Rooney in the 39th minute and he met it beautifully and guided it into the net for a 3-0 lead. Johnson set up three goals and was the man of the match.

Capello brought on Ashley Young, and Jermain Defoe at half time for Steven Gerrard and Rooney. While Young didn’t make much of a difference, Defoe showed why he’s a lot better option up front than Heskey.

Wayne Bridge came on for Ashley Cole in the 64th minute and England put the ball in the net a minute later but it was ruled offside. Defoe was denied by an excellent save from Andorra’s keeper Alvarez in the 69th minute as the England striker met a cross just a couple of yards in front of the net.

However, Defoe made sure he got on the score sheet just five minutes later and then he doubled his output in the 76th minute as Alvarez couldn’t hang onto David Beckham’s long-range free kick and Defoe pounced on the rebound and tucked it home. But Defoe wasn’t finished there. He made a great run into the box in the 80th minute, but mistimed his shot, however, it fell right into the path of  Crouch and he just tucked it over the line to make it 6-0. It was Crouch’s 14th goal in 17 starts for his country.

Today was England’s biggest win in a competitive game since 1999 and although they have done very well so far in the Qualifying stages, some factions of the English press are getting a little carried away already by suggesting 2010 is finally going to be the year England breaks their 44-year drought and will be crowned world champions, for the first time since 1966.

While England has just as good of a chance as anybody to win it, perhaps even a better shot actually than some teams, let’s not forget the games are won on the pitch, not on, and in the paper. They still have a lot of bad habits and sloppy play that needs to be eradicated before next summer. Assuming they make it.

Stevie G’s undying passion

Liverpool ace Steven Gerrard must be one of the most refreshingly honest players in football. Who else would collect a top award but then confess to the prestigious audience that he would rather have been in a dressing room in Wembley preparing for the FA Cup final? But then that’s Stevie G in a nutshell and sums up his continued lust for the game and success.

Gerrard was picking up the Football Writers’ Player of the Year Award in London. Accompanied by his family, he said it was a huge honour and a spectacular night but he would still have exchanged it all for a place in the FA Cup final. Gerrard said he was still hungry for success and believed both he and Liverpool were on the verge of an even better campaign next season.

Having just turned 29, he believes he is still getting better and says he is learning every day in training. There was, he said, still a lot for him to achieve with England and Liverpool and he is planning to pick up trophies galore next year. Gerrard also showed what a modest man he is by thanking everyone who had helped him, not least manager Rafael Benitez for his faith in him and all his team-mates.

Gerrard has certainly had a fantastic season, despite injuries, and can still show his passion and hunger when England meet both Kazakhstan and Andorra in the World Cup qualifiers. Tongue in cheek, England manager Fabio Capello – who presented Gerrard with his award – asked him to score a few more goals for him and his country when the clashes take place!

Stevie scored 24 goals during the season, 16 of them in the Premier League, and is well capable of putting more away to help Liverpool go one better than their second to Manchester United. In fact, scoring just a few more could well be key to Liverpool toppling Manchester United off their perch.

There is certainly a strong feeling in football that Liverpool are coming into their own and they will give the Red Devils a good run for their money. Steven Gerrard is without doubt Liverpool’s best ever midfield player and the team’s talisman. When he is on the pitch, anything can happen and usually does. As captain, he is an inspiration and leads by example, inspiring memorable comebacks.

It’s hard to believe he is already 29 but he will play until he drops and probably has a good ten years in him yet. Gerrard vowed during the presentation night to try and earn the Footballer Writers’ Player of the Year award again next year – unless he happens to be in the Wembley dressing room of course!