Over a decade has gone by since England have been victorious over Spain, to give you a better example of the time that has passed, Sven Goran Eriksson was making his début behind the bench for the Three Lions. More recently Vicente del Bosque got the better of Fabio Capello two years ago in Spain, easily winning the match 2-0. Clearly the reigning European and World Cup champions were the heavy favorites despite Wembley being the venue on Saturday.
Wayne Rooney was an obvious absentee as Capello continued to experiment with his line-up, Phil Jones was given the start in mid-field partnering Scott Parker and Frank Lampard, while Darren Bent was the lone striker up front. Spain fielded a ruthless starting eleven, Xabi Alonso flanked by Xavi and Sergio Busquets in the middle, complimented by the attacking force of David Silva, Andres Iniesta and David Villa. Nine players in total have previous experience against England which is quite remarkable.
From the first touches Spain took control pinning the home side deep inside their own end with everyone behind the ball, Darren Bent immediately was isolated up front. Chasing shadows would best describe the opening exchanges, England seemed content on conceding possession and absorbing the pressure, an aspect which would continue throughout ninety-minutes.
Phil Jones was doing a good job exposing any space that opened up and had a couple of daring runs on the counter, keeping Spain honest in their countless waves of attack. Despite having minimal possession the back four did a tremendous job in extinguishing any threat on goal, Joe Hart had little to do. Considering all the movement in possession Xavi and Alonso found it extremely difficult to breach the defensive wall set up by Joleon Lescott and Phil Jagielka.
Spain were on the bad end of two questionable offside decisions by the linesman, on both occasions replays showed Villa and Silva were clearly onside and would have posed a serious threat if play was allowed to continue. The first shot on target surprisingly fell to England, Lampard attempted from distance which was calmly handled by Iker Casillas after Jones found space again behind Busquets, but that was the only decent opportunity of the half. Having three quarters of possession proved to be of minimal importance, Spain was misfiring in the final third.
Del Bosque made three changes for the second half, in came Pepe Reina for Casillas, with Cesc Fabregas and Juan Mata replacing Xavi and David Silva. Capello responded with only one change of his own, Stewart Downing taking the place of Theo Walcott who struggled with his defensive responsibilities for the entire first half. Spain continued where they left off and tried in vain to pass their way through the strong core of Lampard and Scott Parker. Alvaro Arbeloa made an impressive run and cut inside Ashley Cole, Villa accepted the lay-off but skied the ball way over the target, the striker struggled to find that final touch needed to complete the positive build up play.
Lampard was awarded the captains armband for the match with John Terry on the bench, and the Chelsea man made his presence known by scoring the opener to give England the lead. Never quitting on the play and being rewarded for his efforts with a gift on the goal line. James Milner sent in a nice ball from the set-piece, Bent fought off Sergio Ramos to send in a clinical header off the post which ricocheted right into Lampard's path. That was the second and last shot of the match for the Three Lions.
Before the hour mark Spain finally breached the English back four, Villa made a good run to get behind Jagielka and was clear through but Hart did well to come out and push the striker wide enough for his shot to hit side-netting. Sergio Ramos was then lucky to escape seeing red for an audacious two-footed challenge on Bent, getting away with only a caution by the referee. The visitors continued to apply immense pressure as England fought valiantly to hold on to the lead. Twice Glen Johnson had to be bailed out for poor clearances, the worst resulting in a superb half-volley attempt by Villa that struck the post, it is worth noting Fernando Torres showed no effort to follow the rebound and had his back turned to the play.
The last ten minutes saw England defending deep as Spain pressed for the equalizer, Parker was the difference for England, shutting down the passing lanes and closing down space and diving into tackles at the appropriate times. This was his best game for the national side and deserved being named man of the match. Parker was everywhere on the pitch, even making a last ditch effort to block Fabregas of a golden opportunity to even the score, hustling back to break up the pass to Gerard Pique who would have tested Hart from such a close distance.
Fabregas had two other chances before injury time but came up short on both occasions, the first showed great technical ability to spin off his defender before testing Hart with a shot that dangerously deflected off Jagielka before reaching the target. But the final chance was by far the best, in acres of space with Hart at his mercy following a great ball by Villa, this time his effort shaved the far post missing the net completely, it was horrendous miss that summed up Spain's performance on the day.
No one would have expected England to be victorious yet somehow they managed to grind out the result with some hard-nosed aggressive football. Beating the defending World Champions will give the team a much needed moral boost and confidence moving forward. Despite having fewer than thirty percent of possession England managed to finish off with the same tally of shots on target, two. But Spain had twenty-one that went off target to the home sides three. Now is the time to rejoice and celebrate the victory even though it was just a friendly, enough of the analysis and negativity that usually follows, on this day England may have not been the better side but their performance was good enough to earn a positive result.
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