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.”

The European Under 21 Championships kicked off in Sweden on Monday (June 15th) with a couple of pretty good games.

England got the three points they so desperately wanted with a 2-1 win over Finland. However, there were a few rocky moments for them a long the way, with the worst one being the sending off of Michael Mancienne in the 31st minute for a professional foul on Berat Sadik in the penalty box.

England were already in the lead by then though, as Lee Cattermole gave them an early lead in the 15th minute after Gabriel Agbonlahor set him up. Tim Sparv tied the game up at 1-1 in the 33rd minute as Mancienne’s red card had led to a spot kick for Finland. Sparv sent keeper Joe Hart the wrong way with a fine penalty.

England’s brightest star and national squad member Theo Walcott of Arsenal was taken off at half time and replaced by Fraizer Campbell.

Micah Richards scored on a fantastic header in the 53rd minute off of a corner by James Milner to give England the 2-1 win and they did enough the rest of the way to hang on to the win. They are a huge three points as Spain, and Germany are also in Group B with them.

While England manager Stuart Pearce was happy with the points, especially with 10 men, he said the team needs to get better if they have any chance of winning the tournament.

“What we need to show is more ability. That performance, for this standard of team, wasn’t good enough. They know it before I even tell them. We have to improve on that. I’ve got three points, I’m pleased. I’m delighted with the points. We need to get better than that and we are better than that.”

They won’t have to wait long to see if they are better as they take on Spain on Thursday (June 18th), and Germany will take on Finland.

In the other Group B game, Spain and Germany played to a 0-0 draw in a game that produced quite a few good scoring chances along with some pretty good saves. The result was actually the best thing England could have hoped for as it allowed them to sit atop the group on their own for the time being.

Spain had most of the possession in the first half, but the Germans’ counterattack was pretty impressive. Spain came close to taking the lead, but Jose Chico was beaten by a good save from keeper Manuel Neur, and Marc Torrejon, saw his powerful header slam off the crossbar.

Germany then hit the post just before the half time whistle as Marko Marin’s shot nicked the outside of the post.

Germany had the better chances in the second half, but Spanish keeper Asenjo pulled off a series of fine saves to earn his side a point. None of them were bigger than in injury time when Anis Ben-Hatira almost won it for Germany, but Asenjo again the hero.

England’s under-21 side scraped through their opening game of the European Under-21 Championships as they saw off a Finland side 2-1 in unconvincing style. In a match that England played largely with only ten men, Stuart Pearce’s men were unable to display the charisma and style that the manager would have been hoping for. Lee Cattermole put England ahead before Michael Mancienne gave away a penalty and was subsequently sent off for his trouble. Manchester City defender, Micah Richards, spared England any blushes when he sent a bullet header into the corner of the goal from an England corner in the second half.

England will need to improve a lot on this performance if they want to have any chance of being able to compete against the better sides in the competition. However, they can take heart from the fact that they showed an ability to be able to grind out a result from a truly bad performance and it is unlikely they will be this poor again. Finland could have had some late goals but the point is that England got their first points on the board and Pearce probably won’t be too concerned about how the side plays if they manage to win their games. There is a slight cause to worry because in the later match that day Spain showed some glimpses of real class and it seems as though they would have played England off the park had the Spaniards been the opposition and not the Finns.





It is all experience for Pearce’s young side and doubtless they will already be working away today on stamping out the mistakes ahead of their next game. England have been tipped by a lot of pundits to make a big impression in the competition but the inconsistency prevents them from gaining momentum. In the friendly matches leading up to the first official game England had been on top form and scoring goals at will. The defence was looking solid but as is so often the case with huge competitive matches, when the important stuff kicks in, supposedly lesser sides raise their game and England may have been caught napping yesterday.

It wouldn’t have been complacency, as Pearce would not have allowed this to creep into the side. England teams always start slowly in big tournaments and this should be a worry for the side and an incentive to quickly eradicate the errors that would not be left unpunished against a better side. If they want any chance of repeating their heroics from last year they will need to rapidly improve.

There is no doubt that Pearce would have been quite vocal both at half time and after the match. This is for the simple reason that this England side is better than this. They will want to stamp their authority and brand all over the tournament and it was disappointing to see them resistant to rise to the occasion. Hopefully they are saving up the big performances for the big matches.

England’s under 21s warmed up for a big summer with a thumping win over Azerbaijan. England ran out 7-0 winners in a friendly, which will lift their expectation and confidence ahead of this summer’s European Championships.

Michael Mancienne and Craig Gardener scored goals sandwiched between an own goal to put the home side 3-0 up before a brace from Kieran Gibbs, another own goal and a final strike from Jack Rodwell ended the match at 7-0. England truly outclassed their opponents and never looked under threat.

There was a slight cause for a giggle when Joe Lewis, a goalkeeper at Peterborough, had to play up front in place for one of the injured England midfielders. However, the match had been well rapped up before this point so the risk of playing a player out of position was far less.

It will be a big summer for this group of players and they will fancy their chances after this sort of result. For any other side casually looking at the results of another, this will send a few shock waves across Europe.

Stuart Pearce said after the game: “I can’t ask for any more than that. Lee Cattermole had a slight injury and we’d used all our outfield subs so I had to do it. I didn’t want to seem disrespectful to the opposition and take a player off without putting one on. But I hoped they didn’t realise he was a goalkeeper. Joe thought he ran around more than Fraizer Campbell but we’ll look back at the video to see.”

For a long time the group of players just beneath the first team have looked high quality and a good bet to push the bigger sides in Europe. The performance was efficient and combined rigidity with a lot of talent, something that will please the boss no end.

England will want to banish the memories of a penalty shoot out loss to the Netherlands in the last major competition they played in and there will be a couple of players who will feel like they have a point to prove and will be wanting to make sure those feelings do not surface again.

However, the point is that this was not a high calibre team that England were playing against and the result reflected that. When England come up against the French, the Germans and the Spanish it will be a completely different proposition. They will not be able to get away with a lot of the things that they could last night and if they want to have any chance of winning the Euros this summer then they will have to quickly work this out.

The result proved that it is within the capabilities of the side to do well but it only reflected a performance against a poor team. If England can gel well enough and reach a point where they are ready to go and beat the best teams in the world 7-0 then everyone will be talking about a whole different story.

UEFA has started disciplinary action against Chelsea following the club’s actions at the end of their Champions League semi-final against Barcelona a couple of weeks ago.

It appears that the club, along with players Jose Bosingwa and Didier Drogba, will have to answer for their behaviour after the match on May 6th, and will then be dealt with on June 17th.

For anybody who’s not familiar with the events, Chelsea went tumbling out of the Champions League after Barcelona scored in injury time on their only shot of the game to go through to the finals on the away goals rule. Neither team was happy with Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo, who was brutal throughout the match. Ovrebo sent off Barcelona’s Eric Abidal and then proceeded to turned away several legitimate penalty claims from Chelsea, including a handball in the box on the last kick of the game.

The players’ frustration got them better of them understandably when the final whistle blew as they surrounded Ovrebo to argue and Drogba swore into the television cameras to say Ovrebo’s performance was a disgrace.

Bosingwa was charged because after the game he said: ”I don’t know if he’s a referee or a thief. I don’t have any words to describe that man that was on the pitch. We have nothing against Barcelona’s goal but the penalties that he didn’t give us and his way of managing the game weren’t right at all. This referee should never referee a game again. What happened was a disgrace. It was a well contested game but the referee came to spoil our game,”

Bosingwa retracted those comments the next day though.

Drogba might be suspended for about five games for telling the truth, will probably be handed a stiff fine. The club itself will also face a substantial financial penalty.

In other Chelsea news, England midfielder Frank Lampard has become the first Chelsea player to win the club’s Player of the Year award for a third time. Lampard also won it in 2004 and 2005. Michael Essien’s left-foot volley at home to Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final, was voted Chelsea’s Goal of the Season by supporters.

England left-back Ashley Cole won the Samsung Players’ Player of the Year. The Young Player of the Year award was presented to English youngster Michael Mancienne, who turned 21 and made his Chelsea first-team debut this season. Mancienne’s a defender and an England Under-21 regular. He also received a call-up to the senior squad during the season.

Back to the  disciplinary front, the English  Football Association said that Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas won’t face  any action over an alleged of spitting incident where Hull City’s assistant manager Brian Horton was supposedly spat at following an FA Cup tie with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on March 17.

Fabregas was injured for the match, but joined his team mates on the pitch at the final whistle. Hull manager Phil Brown accused him of spitting during a TV interview after the game. Fabregas denied the incident and the FA have let it drop as there is no evidence that it ever took place.

In off field news, Everton has signed defenders Phil Jagielka and Joseph Yobo to new five-year contracts with the club.

Manchester City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips will miss England’s World Cup qualifying games against Kazakhstan, and Andorra on June 6th and 10th due to a knee injury. Middlesbrough’s Stewart Downing will also miss the games as he’s out for the next three months because of a foot operation. Goalkeeper David James of Portsmouth is also out of action for the games.