Spain held to goalless draw by Northern Ireland
Spain suffered their second Euro 2004 qualifying setback in five days as they were held to a goalless draw by Northern Ireland on Wednesday.
Spain suffered their second Euro 2004 qualifying setback in five days as they were held to a goalless draw by Northern Ireland on Wednesday.
Spain had been cruising through another campaign in the early stages of Group Six but a fortunate 2-2 draw in Ukraine, Saturday's shock 1-0 home defeat by Greece and Wednesday's stalemate has left automatic qualification out of their hands.
Greece, who beat Ukraine 1-0 on Wednesday, are the new surprise leaders on 12 points, Spain have 11 and Ukraine nine.
Northern Ireland, who have not scored now for 10 games going back to February 2002, remain bottom on two points.
Fulham goalkeeper Maik Taylor was the home hero as Spain relentlessly rained in shots and headers.
In the first half he made particularly good stops to deny Raul twice, and Joseba Etxeberria and then another excellent save from Fernando Morientes with 15 minutes to go.
Northern Ireland, featuring players from their domestic league and the second and third divisions in England, produced a spirited display and even tested Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas in a late assault.
Frustrated Spain coach Inaki Saez backed his team despite the poor result.
"I am happy even though we didn't win because the team tried to implement what we did in training and they showed that the spirit in the team is good," he said
"We had chances, three really good ones, and again we didn't take them. "Some of them were right in front of the keeper and when you don't score those you know you are going to have to settle for a draw."
"Sometimes with fewer chances than we had tonight you can win a game 5-0."
Midfielder Ruben Baraja told Spanish state TV: "Things have obviously changed following the results of our last two games."
"We had a thousand chances but just couldn't score -- it was incredible. But we need to have confidence in ourselves and keep fighting. If we win both of our remaining games I am sure we will qualify."
Spain are at home to Ukraine in September and away to Armenia in their final game in October but even two wins will not be enough to top the group if Greece beat Armenia and Northern Ireland.