Spain were dominate throughout the entire 90 minutes of their international friendly against England at the Estadio Jose Rico Perez in Alicante with both goals coming in the second half from Mario Gaspar and Santi Cazorla.

Dull opening quarter of match

The opening moments of the match were quite dull with neither side producing much in their perspective attacking third. In fact, even among the boos from the Spanish supporters, Gerard Pique unleashed an effort from well outside the area which took a deflection off of Chris Smalling before falling out of bounds inches wide of the left post.

Five minutes later, it was Barcelona’s Sergio Busquets who saw his volley, following a corner failed to hit the target. There as a worry, a little over 25 minutes, when Thiago pulled up with no one around him; and with his track record for injuries Vicente Del Bosque did the right thing to take him off immediately as Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla replaced him on the pitch.

Valencia’s Paco Alcacer had his fist effort right before the half hour mark when Andreas Iniesta played him in with a magnificent through ball. Unfortunately, the pass needed a better finish from the young striker as his final effort was rather poor. Then it was Chelsea’s Diego Costa who had a go from the left side of the penalty box only to see his curler curl too far around the right post of Joe Hart’s goal.

England, on the other hand, did not trouble Iker Casillas much in the opening 45 minutes.  Fabian Delph’s attempt, with only three minutes remaining, did not trouble the Porto shot stopper much despite a slight spill. Then on the cusp of halftime, England built up nicely down the left and eventually, Harry Kane’s weak effort trickled out of play for a Spain goal kick.

Much like the first half, the second half got off to a slow start. It took until the 60th minute where Celta de Vigo’s Nolito twisted and turned inside the penalty area before rifling a cross towards the six yard box before Joe Hart punched away the danger before Diego Costa could get on the end of the delivery. Then Jordi Alba tested the Manchester City goalkeeper from a tight angle with Hart up to the challenge as he had the near post covered.

Spain dominance prevails

With 18 minutes remaining in the match, Spain finally found a way through England’s defense, but it took something special. Cesc Fabregas dipped a pass towards the right back Mario, where the Villarreal man twisted his body around before sensationally volleying home Spain’s opening goal.

Santi Cazorla wrapped up the night in the 83rd minute after he placed his shot perfectly into the bottom left hand corner of the goal. England, however, had some complaints for the assistant referee as they thought that Nolito was in an offside position.

There was a glimmer of hope, deep into stoppage, as Harry Kane fired his shot on goal but Iker Casillas produced his only save of the night as he kept yet another clean sheet.

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