Spain vs England: 3 things learned, UEFA Nations League 2018-19
England caused a major upset by beating Spain 2-3 in an absorbing UEFA Nations League match in Seville on Monday. Raheem Sterling scored a brace for England and Marcus Rashford added another in a first half blitz that saw England take a 0-3 lead within 38 minutes.
Spain came back strongly in the second half and reduced the deficit via a couple of goals from Paco Alcacer and Sergio Ramos, but it was not enough to save the day for them. Spain lost an international match on home soil for the first time since 2003.
Luis Enrique’s brilliant start with the Spanish national side, which saw them score 12 goals in 3 matches, also came to a halt as England forced a memorable win.
Spain dominated possession with more than 70 percent of it, and also had more than 20 attempts at goal, but England were more clinical and direct as their brilliant counter-attacking game outclassed the Spanish defence in the first half. Here are 3 takeaways from last night’s game.
#1 England’s fast counter-attacking game was too lethal for Spain
England were very clinical in their approach in the first half and outclassed Spain with their fast attacking game. They started with a 4-4-2 formation which transformed into a 4-3-3 when they had possession.
Rashford and Sterling kept moving into the wide areas, and Harry Kane played the perfect centre forward's role, with a commanding and robust performance.
Moreover, Spain tended to dominate possession and crowd the middle third, and therefore their centre backs had to play a high line at times in order to reduce the gap between themselves and the midfielders.
England took full advantage of that and their midfielders started playing long through balls to the front 3, which led to the goals. Sterling’s first goal was a result of one such glorious counter-attacking move which saw Rashford play a quick one-touch pass to Sterling before the latter beat David De Gea with a right-footed scorcher.
England’s second goal also came via Kane’s brilliant through pass to Rashford, Sterling compounded Spain’s misery with yet another fast move, and the slowness of the ageing Sergio Ramos was exposed completely.
Ramos found it difficult to contend with Sterling’s pace, and Nacho the younger centre back also could not implement his tackles on the English forwards.