Austria 1 - Spain 3
Spain took a major step towards
qualifying for the finals with a good victory in Vienna. Raúl
opened the scoring halfway through the first half, following up after
Arsenal goalkeeper Manninger had blocked the first shot from the Real
Madrid forward. Austria drew level shortly after the break when Hierro
deflected Vastic's free kick into his own net, but the veteran
defender made up for his mistake six minutes later, striking a free
kick from the edge of the penalty area over the defensive wall and
past Manniger. Luis Enrique headed the third two minutes from the end
from Sergi's cross. Real Sociedad's Kuhbauer brought three good saves
out of Spain's goalkeeper Cañizares with long shots.
Austria: Manniger, Hatz,
Strteiter, Winklofer, Ibertsberger, Mahlich (min 60 - Schopp),
Kuhbauer, Mayrleb, Kirchler (min 66 - Weissenberg), Cerny, Vastic.
Spain: Cañizares, Sergi,
Michel Salgado, Hierro, Paco, Guardiola, Etxeberria (min 80 -
Mendieta), Valerón (min 71 - Engonga), Luis Enrique, Raúl,
Morientes (min 87 - Guerrero).
Spain 8 - Cyprus 0
Spain went in to this game
needing a victory to qualify automatically for the Euro 2000 finals as
group champions, but with the memory in the back of their minds of the
3-2 defeat a year ago in Cyprus which cost manager Javier Clemente his
job. They shouldn't have worried however. This is a new Spain under
manager José Antonio Camacho, and they ended up winning by 8-0,
giving Camacho an incredible 37-2 record in his six Euro 2000 matches
in charge. Without doubt the Athletic de Bilbao players were the stars
of the match, with Urzaiz and Julen Guerrero scoring a hat-trick each
in the first hour. César headed a seventh in his first full
match for Spain, and Hierro scored the eighth, also with a header, two
minutes from time. Hierro is now the second equal highest goalscorer
of all time for Spain, level on 23 goals with Di Stefano and three
behind Butragueño. Not bad for a defender! Raúl is not
far behind however - after 26 matches, he has already scored 14. The
match was played in Badajoz in Extremadura, and the players won't
forget the conditions easily. As well as the heat, the ground was
invaded by insects, including a plague of giant grasshoppers and
mosquitoes.
Spain: Cañizares (min -
75 Toni), Michel Salgado, Hierro, César, Aranzábal,
Guardiola, Etxeberria (min 45 - Munitis), Luis Enrique (min 60 -
Mendieta), Guerrero, Raúl, Urzaiz.
Cyprus: Panayiotou, Costa,
Pittas (min 13 - Theodolou), Nikolau (min 45 - Aristocleou), Louka,
Melanarkitis, Engomitis, Christodolou, Gogic (min 87 - Ioannou),
Papavasiliou, Okkas.
The Spanish under 21 squad have
now gone almost four years without losing. They went very close
against Cyprus last Tuesday however, with Farinós scoring from
a free kick in the last minute to level at 1-1. Four days earlier they
beat Austria 1-2 to qualify for the finals of the European
competition.
Spain will play two friendly
matches around the weekend of 14th November in preparation for next
year's Euro 2000 finals. One match will be against Argentina and the
other probably against either Mexico or Brazil. Spain's last match in
the qualifying round of Euro 2000 against Israel on 9th October will
probably be in Albacete. |