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.”
