By Carly Goodwill
June 20 2009

England’s under 21’s secured a place in the semi-finals of Euro 2009 after a 2-0 win over Spain in Gothenburg.

Gabriel Agbonlahor had a very early chance in the first 25 seconds, he was passed the ball by Milner and it just missed Sergio Asenjo’s post.  Milner also crossed a dangerous ball from the left just after and it almost dropped insde the far post but went out for a throw.

England nearly handed Spain a goal on 13 minutes when a heavy Nedum Onuoha back pass went away from Joe Hart towards goal. The Manchester City ‘keeper had to scramble backwards to eventually clear it from the line.

Both sides had good spells of possession but while the Spanish had Jose Manuel Jurado and Bojan Krkic looking for the holes, Milner and Johnson were working well together on the left. Four more crosses from the Villa player caused problems. The first two were saved mid-air by Asenjo, the next one was turned away by a header for a corner and Milner's ball back into play then dropped nicely for Micah Richards who was at the back post, but England couldn’t find a gap to send the ball home.

Bojan also had a shot at goal after finding a space behind Lee Cattermole, but his shot went wide.

England had a great opportunity to open the scoring in the 32nd minute. Javi Garcia was caught in possession by Milner who twisted inside the box and was tripped over by the Real Madrid defender.

Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers pointed to the spot and Milner picked himself up to take it. However the keeper guessed correctly when he dived low to the right and saved the ball.  Bojan almost made The Young Lions fall behind just four minutes later when he and Jurado played a neat one-two on the edge of England’s box. Setting himself up well the Barcelona player bent a good effort towards goal which just missed Hart’s upright. Agbonlahor, who had been limping for a little while eventually had to be taken off and was replaced by Fraizer Campbell.
 
Kieran Gibbs also picked up a small injury early on in the second half which needed treatment and he was still walking with difficulty when Javi Martinez chased his own knock-on into Gibbs’ corner. After going past the Arsenal man, Joe Hart came racing out of the box but was unable to get near the Bilbao midfielder. Martinez looked up and from a tight angle, rolled across the goal, but with no red shirts in the area to collect the ball, Martin Cranie was there to turn it away. Just after 60 minutes had passed, Theo walcott came on for Adam Johnson.
 
Walcott’s pace was a threat to the Spanish defence as England put them under more pressure, and when Milner won possession he played in to Campbell 200 yards out. He took his time to open up the space before he delivered a low strike inside the post to put England in the lead.  Just six minutes later when Walcott received the ball, which was taken from Spain by Noble, and from the left hand side, he shot it straight past Garcia and into the back of the net leaving the Young lions 2 goals in front.

Milner recieved a booking in the closing stages of the game, meaning unfortunately he is out of the next game against Germany. Spain worked hard in the last few minutes, shooting whenever they could to get a consolation goal but it made no difference as the whistle went leaving England with a place in the semi-finals. 
 
Full time: Spain 0 England 2                                    

Campbell 67'
Milner 73' 
Referee Bjorn Kuipers

Attendance 16,123 

Spain 0 England 2

Discussion started by Three Lions (IP Logged), 20/06/2009 16:53

Three Lions
20/06/2009 16:53

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