Spain 6-1 Argentina: 5 Talking Points
SCORE: SPAIN 6-1 ARGENTINA
SCORERS: SPAIN- Diego Costa 12', Isco 27' 52' 74', Thiago Alcantara 55', Iago Aspas 73' ARGENTINA- Otamendi 39'
Spain were at their scintillating best in front of their home crowd as they humiliated their visitors by putting six past Agentina.
Isco starred in a wonderful performance for the 2010 World Cup Champions with Thiago, Diego Costa and Iago Aspas all getting on the score-sheet for the hosts. Lionel Messi didn't feature at all for Argentina as they struggled to function as a team once again, even without their talisman.
Spain were merciless in their finishing and relatively solid at the back, except for a slight hitch, from a set piece, that saw Manchester City's Nikolas Otamendi make it 2-1 before the break. Argentina were swept away after the restart, in a display of pragmatic yet delightful football by Julen Lopetegui's side.
Jorge Sampaoli will be left feeling gutted, but will have little time to turn things around with the World Cup lurking around the corner.
#5 This Spain side has a multi-pronged attack
Spain is often labelled as a single-dimensional team which looks to, first and foremost, get possession of the ball and keep it. They are stereotyped into a unit who likes to attack with all the opposition team lined-up in defence, sort of an attack against defence regiment that they like to employ against their opposition.
The Spanish side under their new coach seem to have developed a couple of more tricks up their sleeves.
Apart from both the recognised strikers in the side getting their names on the score sheet, Costa with the opener and Aspas with the fifth, the midfielders too chipped in with their fair share of goals.
While the opener from Costa was constructed with the vintage exquisite passing routine that comes so naturally to the hosts, the one from his replacement was anything but routine. Route one football, when you'd least expect it, got Spain home and dry.
An exhibition in pressing higher up-field rounded off the scoring for the 2010 Word Cup Champions. Thiago and Isco both kept pushing further upfield to support the strikers which paid dividends for the pair as they scored 4 between themselves.
All in all a stellar performance by the attacking unit of the Spanish national side. Plenty to be hopeful about.