England 2-0 Spain: Under-21s Looking Good

Cracking 2-0 win for England U-21s over their Spanish counterparts yesterday, putting us through to the UEFA Under-21 Championships semi-finals.

James Milner pulled off some sweet skills to win a pen in the 33rd, but then saw his shot saved. But Fraizer Campbell (who had come for the injured Agbonlahor at the end of the first half) put England ahead with a nice cut inside and strike in the 67th minte, and then Walcott (on as a 60th minute sub) burned the Spanish right back and pulled it back for Milner to make up for his penalty miss and make it 2-0 in the 73rd minute.

Stuart Pearce had followed up his bold half-time substituting of Walcott vs Finland by starting the Arsenal youngster on the bench and bringing him on in the second half. Nice to see an England manager with the balls to drop a big name for the good of the team, and even better to see a big name respond positively.

Even better, how good do our Under-21s look? There’s the theory that too many foreigners in the Premier League is stifling young English talent, but there’s also the theory that most of these Under 21 players are established Premier League first-teamers so all is rosy.

Lineup vs Spain was:

1 Joe Hart, 2 Martin Cranie, 19 Kieran Gibbs, 6 Nedum Onuoha, 17 Micah Richards, 10 Mark Noble (C), 4 Lee Cattermole, 12 Fabrice Muamba, 11 Adam Johnson (14 Theo Walcott, 62) 7 James Milner (8 Craig Gardner, 84) 9 Gabriel Agbonlahor (21 Fraizer Campbell, 39)
Substitutes 3 Andrew Taylor, 5 Richard Stearman, 13 Joe Lewis, 15 Jack Rodwell, 16 James Tomkins, 20 Andrew Driver, 22 Scott Loach, 23 Danny Rose.

Don’t want to get carried away just yet, but a win in this tournament is now looking possible. We’ve qualified from Group B with a game to spare (final group game vs Germany on Monday, where anything but a loss sees us finish top) and will face either Italy, Sweden, Serbia or Belarus in the semi-finals.