The Spanish🇪🇸 national team played a comfortable victory over Serbia🇷🇸 as they asserted their dominance over their European neighbors.
Goals from Aymeric Laporte, Alvaro Morata, and Alex Baena meant that the defending Champions were in cruise control throughout the match.
Lineups
Spain had several key players unavailable on Tuesday due to injury or other reasons, including Lamine Yamal, Rodri, Dani Carvajal, Dani Olmo, and Nico William.
After their first win in the group against Switzerland, Serbia played a 3-5-2 shape with Aleksander Mitrovic and Dejan Jovelhic up top.
How The Match Unfolded
Spain’s dominance was seen in the stars, as evidenced by their 30 shots to their opponent’s measly 3.
America Laporte’s header gave Spain the lead in the 5th minute, with it being the second time La Roja has found up in the first 5 minutes of a game following Joselu’s goal against Switzerland in match day 2.
The Spaniards had chances to double their tally in the first 45, with Alex Baena’s ding Mikel Merino whose effort hit the crossbar, and later Vivian’s and Zubimendi’s shots were well wide.
David Raya made a stop following Pavlovic’s take effort, and in the second 45, captain Alvaro Morata sent the ball over the bar after a penalty, but the captain scored following a slick move that allowed Fabian Ruiz to pass the ball to him, and Morata to finish with aplomb.
Serbia’s night under the rain went from bad to worse as Aleksander Pavlovic was shown a red card, which was upgraded from a yellow, and minutes later, Alex Baena curled a left-footed free-kick into the net for Spain’s third.
What DId The Coach Say
From De La Fuente, Spain’s head coach: “I want us to keep doing things as well as we did here tonight. We played such a complete match; it was really high-level stuff. Concentrated from the first instant, really enjoyable to watch in all facets of our play, and when you show this attitude and then get things right, it’s very difficult not to succeed. Spain was brilliant, and the fans were marvelous.“
Up Next
Spain is through to the quarters with 10 points from 4 games. It will face Denmark next, while Serbia takes on Switzerland.
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