Barcelona stars Lamine Yamal and Anthony Gordon were both on target as Spain beat England 3-2 on Saturday night in an entertaining game in the Nations League at Wembley Stadium.
Manager Luis de la Fuente named five Barcelona players in his starting XI, with Eric Garcia, Pau Cubarsi, Rodri, Dani Olmo and Yamal all given the nod. Pedri and Fermin Lopez both had to settle for a place on the bench, while Barca team-mate Gordon was named as a starter for England.
However, there was a late change ahead of
kick-off as Garcia was ruled out at the last minute and replaced by Marc Pubill due to a knee problem.
The late disruption didn’t affect Spain at all as Yamal put the visitors ahead with less than two minutes on the clock.
Marc Guehi managed to gift Yamal possession and he curled the ball home to give the world champions an early lead at Wembley. The goal is the third quickest goal England have ever conceded at Wembley Stadium, according to Opta.
Ferran Torres thought he had made it 2-0 shortly afterwards but his goal was ruled out for offside.
England hit back on 36 minutes when Gordon equalised from a quick counter-attack. Jude Bellingham drove forwards and played the ball to Gordon who ran through and finished past a back-tracking Unai Simon.
The Three Lions then scored again just before half-time to take the lead. Nico O’Reilly’s cross was headed goalwards by Harry Kane and went in via a deflection off Marc Cucurella.
Thomas Tuchel’s side then had the chance to extend their lead after the break. Rodri was penalised for a foul on Bellingham in the penalty area, gifting England a spot-kick. Kane stepped up to take the penalty but slipped and saw his effort crash against the crossbar.
That miss proved costly as Spain were quickly level. Substitute Dani Olmo took advantage of more poor defending from England to pounce on the ball and feed Alex Baena who curled home Spain’s second.
Spain weren’t done there, either. Baena was involved again in La Roja’s third which was finished by a lovely dink over goalkeeper James Trafford from fellow substitute Mikel Oyarzabal.
