JUMP FOR JOY: Fraizer Campbell, a first-half substitute celebrates after putting England ahead
Second-half goals from Fraizer Campbell and James Milner were enough to earn the win and England, with six points from their first two Group A matches, are now already guaranteed a place in the last four with a game in hand.
It was a terrific display from Stuart Pearce’s youngsters, who even missed a first-half penalty when Milner saw his effort saved.
England went ahead with Campbell’s clinical strike, then Walcott came on and within minutes set up Milner for the clincher.
England will now play a ‘dead’ rubber against Germany on Monday.
Just before kick off Germany completed a straightforward 2-0 victory over Finland in Halmstad, meaning the Finns could no longer reach the semi-finals.
Pearce sprung a major surprise by omitting Walcott in Gothenburg’s Gamla Ullevi stadium.
He may have delivered a less-than inspiring 45 minutes against Finland on Monday before being hauled off by Pearce, but his decision to leave out the golden boy was eyebrow-raising and his club manager Arsene Wenger’s reaction would probably be unprintable.
Yet England made an encouraging start as Lee Cattermole picked out Adam Johnson, who fired his cross to the near post where Gabriel Agbonlahor just missed the target.
But after only 12 minutes a horrible defensive mix-up almost handed Spain the lead as Nedum Onuoha’s mis-directed back pass was cleared off the line by the scampering Joe Hart.
On the half-hour mark Milner’s deep cross towards Agbonlahor was headed under pressure by Spanish defender Marc Torrejon just wide of the upright and from the resulting corner Micah Richards, scorer of England’s winner against Finland, almost bundled the ball over the line as Pearce’s side continued their aerial threat.
Minutes later Milner was clearly tripped in the box by Javi Garcia and the over-fussy Dutch referee got it right, pointing to the spot.
Milner dusted himself down and drove his penalty kick into the bottom right hand corner only for highly rated Real Valladolid keeper Sergio Asenjo to pull off a remarkable save.
Soon Barcelona’s Bojan exchanged passes with Jose Manuel Jurado before curling a delightful shot fractionally past Hart’s post, with the keeper well beaten.
Agbonlahor limped off to be replaced by Campbell six minutes before the break and although Spain’s technical class was evident, England continued to press forward with Cattermole striking a 15-yard volley straight at Asenjo.
A bad mistake by skipper Mark Noble almost let in Jurado and seconds later Bojan whistled a shot high and wide.
Kieran Gibbs clattered into Jurado and after a lengthy spell of treatment limped back on to the pitch but Arsenal full-back Gibbs still hadn’t fully recovered when Atletico Madrid’s Javi Martinez showed him a clean pair of heels.
Martinez then rounded Hart and from an acute angle side-footed his effort towards goal only for Martin Cranie to clear off the line.
Danger-man Bojan was strangely substituted just before the hour mark. Fabrice Muamba up-ended Jurado on the edge of the box and he curled his free-kick around the wall but too near to Hart, while at the other end Milner’s shot lacked enough power to trouble Asenjo.
Walcott came off the bench in the 62nd minute, replacing Johnson and received a rapturous reception from the near-capacity crowd. Five minutes later substitute Campbell netted for England.
The hard-working Milner dispossessed the Spanish in midfield and fed a lovely through ball to Campbell, who beat his marker and fired convincingly past Asenjo to hand Pearce’s side the lead.
Just six minutes later they doubled their advantage with a magnificent strike. Cattermole picked out Walcott, who out-paced his marker with ease to cross for Aston Villa’s Milner.
And Milner, making a record 44th U21 appearance, took his chance with aplomb, crashing his shot past the Spanish keeper.
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