Defending champions Spain ran riot against Fatih Terim's Turkey, with Alvaro Morata grabbing two goals and Nolito scoring the other. It was a disappointing performance by the Turks and their captain Arda Turan was booed by his fans whenever he touched the ball.
Easy as you like for La Roja
As expected Spain dominated possession from the first whistle, frustrating their opponents and constantly trying to pass through them.
However, the first goal did not come until over 30 minutes had been played, when Juventus striker Alvaro Morata scored his first goal for Spain in a major competition.
Before that, Morata tested Turkey goalkeeper Volkan Babacan with a powerful shot, the young Spaniard turned well and fired a shot toward the Turkey goal, but Babacan was equal to it, making a strange save to deny Spain from taking the lead before 10 minutes had been played.
Hakan Balta then hit the post, albeit on his own goal after he intercepted a cross from Jordi Alba and the resulting corner was met by Gerard Pique, but it was headed into the ground and the score remained 0-0.
Pique scored the only goal in Spain’s 1-0 win over the Czech Republic, so it was clear to see that the FC Barcelona man was disappointed with his effort.
Then Alvaro Morata gave Spain the lead, after a wonderful cross from Nolito, the Juventus man only had to guide the ball towards goal, which he did, it ended up nestling in the bottom corner.
Moments later it was 2-0, Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fabregas tried to clip the ball over Turkey’s back four toward Nolito and it seemed like it was a poor pass, but a moment to forget for Mehmet Topal saw him turn the ball into the path of Nolito who slipped the ball beyond Babacan to double his sides advantage.
The Crescent Stars never really troubled the defending champions, both Hakan Calhanoglu and Arda Turan tried to beat David de Gea from distance, but both of their shots ended up well wide of the post.
Calhanoglu did however have a free-kick which he placed just over the cross bar, the Bayer 04 Leverkusen man is known as one of, if not the best deadball strikers in the world, the fact his shot wasn’t even on target was disappointing.
Carbon copy second half
The game’s momentum didn’t change in the second period, Spain continued to dominate possession and put Turkey to the sword only a couple of minutes after the break had ended.
Morata notched his second goal of the night and his easiest. The ball was played beautifully through the Turkish defence by Andre Iniesta and it was controlled by Jordi Alba who unselfishly squared the ball for Morata and he had the simple job of tapping the ball beyond Babacan, which he did, making it 3-0 to the defending champions.
That goal ended any hope Turkey had of coming back to salvage a point and Turks rarely tested their opponents in the match. It was almost four a couple of minutes after when man of the match Iniesta clipped the ball over the Turkey back four but Morata could only head narrowly wide.
Burak Yilmaz then had a chance to pull one back when he ran beyond the Spain defence and wrong-footed Gerard Pique, but the Beijing Guoan striker could only bend the ball high and wide.
Nothing really happened after that, Spain continued to deploy their famous tiki-taka style of play and Turkey seemingly gave up.
The win for Spain means they sit top of Group D with 6 points after Croatia surrendered a two-goal lead against the Czech Republic. Turkey however sit bottom with zero points who next face the Czech’s.
