Nice (France): European champions Spain are often slow starters at major tournaments, but after Gerard Pique’s late winner in their Euro 2016 opener, Vicente del Bosque’s men already have the last 16 in sight when they take on Turkey on Friday. An opening defeat at the 2010 World Cup, and draw at the 2012 European Championship ultimately counted for little as Spain won both tournaments.
But after a disastrous 5-1 thrashing at the hands of the Netherlands provoked a first-round exit from the 2014 World Cup, Spain breathed a sigh of relief with the 1-0 win against the Czech Republic in Toulouse on Monday. Spain are now unbeaten in 13 European Championship games, but question marks remain over the potency of their attack to give veteran coach del Bosque plenty of selection headaches for their second Group D tie. The two-time defending champions dominated possession and managed 17 shots on goal, but had to wait until the 87th minute for centre-back Pique to head home at the back post.
One of several new Spain faces making their major finals debut, Athletic Bilbao striker Aritz Aduriz sat on the bench as Juventus marksman Alvaro Morata spurned a hatful of chances in front of Petr Cech’s goal. Aduriz replaced Morata for the last 20 minutes, but failed to make a big impact as he sent a speculative overhead kick wide of the target with his best effort.
Despite the new-look Spain, it was the 32-year-old Andres Iniesta who ran the show for Spain, even without his retired long-time partner Xavi at his side, as he made the goal for Pique with an inch-perfect cross.
Fatih Terim’s side entered the tournament on a promising vein of form having lost just one of their previous 16 games, but were outclassed in losing 1-0 to Croatia at the Parc des Princes on Sunday. Previously fancied by many to make it out of a difficult group, their star talents like Arda Turan, Oguzhan Ozyakup and Hakan Calhanoglu were far from their best.
