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News Archive

Friendly international

Equatorial Guinea 1 - Spain 2

With Spain already qualified for the World Cup finals, "La Roja" took advantage of the latest international break to play two friendly games in Africa, the second in South Africa where they won the World Cup for the first time some three years ago. Before that though they visited Equatorial Guinea, a decision which attracted a lot of criticism due to the poor human rights record of the local dictatorship. Del Bosque used the occasion to give a run out to some of his lesser used players, but even so they went ahead early on when keeper Danilo dropped Mata's cross, allowing Cazorla to turn the ball in to an empty net. Mata and Navas had chances after that, but Bartra just managed to deflect a shot from Bolado over the top, and from the resulting Juvenal corner Bermúdez ran in to head the equalizer past Reina. It was a physical contest though, and the already booked Fidjeu was lucky to stay on the park after a terrible two-footed tackle shortly before half time which took Xabi Alonso out of the game. A couple of minutes later however Spain regained the lead after Danilo could only push out a deflected cross from Navas, Juanfran volleying the rebound back in to the net. The game slowed down in the second half as both coaches made a string of substitutions, and incidents were few and far between, Llorente getting the ball in the net only for the strike to be ruled out for a non-existent offside. Otherwise though a dull end to a match which at least served as an experience of the type of opposition Spain can expect from African sides next summer. (16.11.13)