As it happened England bring Spain Down UEFA Nations League.

-
The visitors stunned La Roja by scoring a trio of goals within 22 first-half minutes, with a Raheem Sterling brace sandwiching a Marcus Rashford goal. Spain looked to mount a second-half comeback, but their brazen effort comes up short.
The hottest goal-scorer in all of Europe, Paco Alcacer, scored with his first touch after coming on as a substitute, but a last-second Sergio Ramos header was all the rest Spain could muster the rest of the second stanza in what was Spain's first defeat at home in an official match since 2003.
Despite the defeat, Spain still sits in first place in Group 4 with six points, with England now on their tails in second place with four points.
Most concerning for head coach Luis Enrique will have been the play of his defence. Spain back four was completely gutted by England's lethal counter-attack in the first half, with Sterling, Rashford and the excellent Harry Kane running rampant for a good chunk of the first 45 minutes.
Luis Enrique made a slew of changes from the team that defeated Wales in a friendly last Thursday. The only holdovers from Cardiff were goalkeeper David De Gea, centre-back Sergio Ramos and midfielder Saul. Otherwise, it was a fresh set of faces in the Asturian's line-up.
It was all Spain at the start, as La Roja absolutely suffocated England and had the Three Lions pinned back. If not for a miraculous save from England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford on a Marcos Alonso shot, Spain would have led inside the first five minutes. The Chelsea's man effort looked goalbound, but the ball thumped off the head of the unknowing Pickford.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

COE LAUNCHES IAAF WORLD ATHLETICS HERITAGE PLAQUE AWARD

-
Image
IAAF President Sebastian Coe this evening announced the creation of the IAAF World Athletics Heritage Plaque. Coe also opened a public competition to design the plaque and launched a dedicated plaque website section for the new award. Coe made the announcements while hosting 150 guests at an IAAF Heritage Legends Reception in the Meridien Beach Plaza Hotel, Monaco. The audience included representatives and family members of several deceased athletics legends including Paavo Nurmi, Jesse Owens, Fanny Blankers-Koen and Emil Zatopek. On stage, each family presented Coe with historic artefacts from their relatives’ famous careers by donation to the IAAF Heritage Collection. Coe commented: “The IAAF World Athletics Heritage Plaque is a location-based recognition which highlights, celebrates and links together iconic and historic athletics competitions, careers, performances, cities, venues, landmarks and culture around the world.” A uniquely designed plaque will be permanently a...
Read more

Messi's €700 million release clause Won't Scare Bigger Clubs

-
Image
Barcelona corporate director Pancho Schroder concedes Lionel Messi's huge buyout clause may not be enough to frighten off big spenders. The Argentine maestro put a halt to speculation he could leave the Catalan giants by signing a contract extension until 2021 in November, with the deal including a €700 million release clause. But Schroder told Sky Sports: "We have established a clause that we consider sufficient for Messi to retire at Barcelona, but, having said that, a year ago we thought that Neymar's clause was also good enough to keep him and last summer it proved that it was not so. "Looking to the future, I think it's difficult, but I don't have a crystal ball and now things are getting a little crazy."
Read more

Bring On Real Madrid, Juventus - Salah

-
Image
Liverpool forward, Mohammed Salah has declared that the team isn’t scared of facing Real Madrid and Juventus in the quarter final of the UEFA Champions league. The Reds qualified to the next round after thrashing FC Porto 5-0 on aggregate, the first leg had ended 5-0 before playing a 0-0 draw at Anfield last week Tuesday. The Egyptian international has been in blistering form this season since joining Liverpool in the summer from Roma, scoring 33 goals in all competitions to help the Reds spearhead a possible title dream. Salah revealed that having crossed the round of 16 hurdles, the team welcomes any opponents from Real Madrid and Juventus in the quarter final. "We are really confident of ourselves regardless of what other teams in the Champions League feel. Our goal is to ensure that we face each game as they come and we are not scared of Real Madrid or Juventus in the next round should they pit us together. "We are more than focus in the competition and I belie...
Read more