Spain cruise to victory in final Euro warm-up despite early Northern Ireland goal
Spain came into the game having not lost a friendly on home soil since June 2016 (W7, D4), but that run was in danger of ending very early on, as Northern Ireland took the lead just two minutes into the game.
The goal came after Caolan Boyd-Munce’s long-distance freekick was pumped into the Spanish penalty area, where Daniel Ballard directed an excellent looped header over the goalkeeper and into the left side of the goal.
However, the Green and White army’s lead was short-lived, as Luis de la Fuente’s side equalised just 10 minutes later when Pedri carried the ball forward from midfield before firing a beautiful shot into the bottom-left corner from the edge of the penalty area.
The turnaround was complete after just 18 minutes too, when Spain’s joint-top goalscorer from their European Championship’s qualifying campaign Alvaro Morata found the net yet again.
This time powering home Jesus Navas’ pinpoint cross with a delightful glancing header that came off the post before finding the bottom left corner.
Things got even worse for Michael O’Neill’s side though when Pedri scored his second of the evening, as the Barcelona midfielder turned home Nico Williams’ cutback to give La Roja a two-goal lead.
The floodgates had well and truly opened at this point though, with Spain netting a fourth 10 minutes before the break, when Fabian Ruiz poked home Lamine Yamal’s cross from inside the six-yard box.
The start of the second half was quiet with Spain seeming relatively content and sitting on their lead.
But they sprung into action on the hour mark, when Yamal cut the ball back towards Mikel Oyarzabal from the byline, where the Real Sociedad winger managed to squeeze the ball past Bailey Peacock-Farrell courtesy of a Ballard deflection.
Northern Ireland kept searching for a way back into the game though and went close when Isaac Price found himself free inside the box, before directing the ball towards the left side of goal, but Unai Simon was equal to it.
La Roja saw the rest of the game out comfortably as they ended their European Championship preparations with back-to-back wins, ahead of their opening match against Croatia in Germany next Saturday.
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s three-match unbeaten streak came to an end, with just a friendly against Andorra on Tuesday awaiting them this summer, before a lengthy wait until September for their next outing for their upcoming UEFA Nations League C matches.
