Spain stumble to victory over Denmark
Spain's spluttering start to their Euro 2008 campaign continued when they made heavy weather of beating 10-man Denmark 2-1 in Real Madrid's legendary Santiago Bernabeu stadium here on Saturday.
Spain's spluttering start to their Euro 2008 campaign continued when they made heavy weather of beating 10-man Denmark 2-1 in Real Madrid's legendary Santiago Bernabeu stadium here on Saturday.
The capacity 75,000 spectators were treated to 15 minutes of brilliance late in the first half, which saw goals from Spain's Fernando Morientes and David Villa, before enduring a horribly frustrating second period.
"We were fortunate. In the second half we were overcome by nerves. This team is better than the one you saw in the second half. But I'm happy we won," said Spain coach Luis Aragone after two successive losses prior to the game.
"We shouldn't have had these nerves especially when we were 2-0 up. We lost balls too easily and that's not normal. This team should not play as badly as we did in the second half," added Aragones.
After an even opening 20 minutes, the pendulum seemed to swing decisively to Spain's advantage when Niclas Jensen was sent off for his second yellow in as many minutes.
The FC Copenhagen left back clumsily hacked down Morientes and then followed it up with a wild foul on Villa.
Villa almost put Spain ahead six minutes after the dismissal when his header from a David Silva cross went whistling past the post.
Morientes then broke the deadlock with a well taken goal after 34 minutes, swerving around Liverpool's Daniel Agger on the edge of the six yard box before slotting the ball past Denmark goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen with his left foot.
The goal saw the Valencia striker, who can count Real Madrid and Liverpool among his former clubs, become the third highest scorer in a Spanish jersey.
It was also Morientes' first international goal for 17 months and he elicited deserved cheers when he was substituted after 62 minutes.
In injury time at the end of the first half, David Villa evaded the Danish off-side trap and broke free to run unhindered into the box before hammering the ball past Sorensen from 10 metres.
The stage seemed set for Spain to run riot and score several more goals in the second half but it was not to be.
Danish coach Morten Olson reorganised his troops and instead the Spanish fans were silenced three minutes into the second half when Michael Gravgaard rose high above the Spanish defence to head the visitors back in contention.
"The Danish goal affected us but it was a blow for the supporters as much as us. We have to learn from these mistakes," said Aragones, although some cynics would argue that Spain have been making the same mistakes for the last year.
The game then quickly descended into becoming a scrappy affair as an unambitious Denmark tried to absorb the pressure and salvage an equaliser on the break.
Emphasising how the standard of play had degenerated, there were six bookings after all the goals had been scored.
"At least we won this game and we are still in contention for Euro 2008," said Villa, admitting that once again Spain had failed to impress despite getting three points.
Spain move up to fourth place in Group F with only the first two to progress to next summer's finals.
Sweden lead the way in Group F with 12 points, with Northern Ireland second on 10 points after their 4-1 win over Liechtenstein earlier on Saturday.
Denmark lose their unbeaten record and slip to third with seven points with Spain one point and one place in arrears.
Aragones was in serious danger of losing his job if his team had lost their third Euro 2008 qualifier in a row but should keep his position for the moment.
The controversial 68-year-old will be at the helm when Spain face Iceland in Palma de Mallorca on Wednesday.
Nevertheless, there could still be some hard thinking by the Spanish federation about his future ahead of the next round of matches in June.