LITHUANIA 1 SPAIN 3 | EURO 2012 GROUP I QUALIFIER RESULT

SPAIN managed to win away to LITHUANIA 1 - 3 in their EURO 2012 Group I qualifier to give them another victory, consolidate the Groups Top spot & put them nearly into the Euro Finals of next year. The match went ahead after UEFA officials & the French referee decided that the turf ( without grass ) was apt to play on & safe. Correct decision as no one from both teams were injured in a game played in good spirits as there was no difficult situations for the referee. 

Xavi scores for Spain: photo-J.A.Gracia/Marca

Spanish Coach Del Bosque put the following starting 11: Casillas; Iraola, Piqué, Albiol, Arbeloa; Xabi Alonso, Javi Martínez, Xavi, Cazorla, Villa & Llorente, with At.Bilbao defender Iraola winning an International Cap & other well know stars getting a rest.

The match was played well considering the circumstances of the surface with Spain dominating & with Lithuanian goalkeeper Karcemarskas stopping the Spanish forwards. The first goal came in the 19th min via XAVI HERNANDEZ which took a slight deflection to loop over the goalie.

The second half saw Spain begin well until Valencia CF defender & Lithuanian Captain STANKEVICIUS got onto a "cracker" from 30 mts to power drive passed Iker Casillas with an unstoppable goal. This raised the confidence of the home team & they put Spain under pressure & gave them their worst 15 mins of Football. Spain reacted with substitutions giving David Silva & Juna Mata a run & it paid off.

Spain scored their second in the 70th min via an own goal from defender KIJANSKAS who could do little as Llorente was in clear shot position, then JUAN MATA finished off a nice worked play with a third for Spain in the 83rd min.

Great result for Spain & even better was the fact that no one got injured playing on a "terrible" ground, that at least held out the full 90 minutes.



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SPAIN 2 CZECH REPUBLIC 1 | EURO 2012 GROUP I QUALIFIER MATCH RESULT

The SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM & current European & World Champions defeated the CZECH REPUBLIC 2 - 1 in a difficult & at times frustrating game as the visitors put Spain on the ropes for 69 mins before solving the "situation". The victory opens up a significant gap between Spain,  which now leads Group I ,  & second placed Czech Rep with a 6 point margin. 

There were two milestones tonight of worthy mention. The first was the 100th International Cap that XAVI HERNANDEZ gets onto his name & DAVID VILLA who surpassed mythical Spanish player Raul & become  the "all  time Historical goal scorer for Spain" with his two goals taking his tally to 46 goals for the Spanish National Football Team.

Plasil for Czech Republic

The Czech Republic had their ideas fairly clear from the start: DEFEND. I suppose they thought that If by doing so, they could find a counter-attack & get lucky, so be it, with defending the priority. Thus, it was so, with Spain controlling proceeding & Czech goalie Peter Cech stopping everything kicked/headed towards his goal. Then in the 28th min the Czech side attacked in a rare forward move & PLASIL tried his luck from outside the box that found the post & scored a "surprise" goal. First & only attack by the Czech side & a goal!

Obviously this motivated Spain further to attack more & the Czech team took their defending to the maximum level,  literally constructing a defensive wall.

Iniesta for Spain

The nerves set in onto the Spanish Camp & Coach del Bosque took some brave risks. He changed Xabi Alonso for Fernando Torres at the start of the second half & shortly later defender Capdevila for Cazorla. Spain continued dominanting the match entirely & smashing into the Czech Wall until finally in the 69th min Iniesta found DAVID VILLA who equalized & become the Spanish Team all-time Historical goal scorer. It was a big sigh of relief as Spain was seeing how time was flying by & the game was getting more & more complicated.

David Villa become Spain all-time goalscorer

Spain continued with their pressure as they wanted the victory & in the 73rd min Iniesta was fouled in the area & awarded a penalty. DAVID VILLA stepped up & scored the second for Spain & his 46th overall for his country.  There was a few more chances for Spain towards the end, especially one that Torres had stopped by team-mate Cech & the match finished happy for the locals.

Spain now plays Lithuania next week, after the latter defeated Poland 2 - 0 tonight in the other Group I clash.


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