Spain ease past Slovakia to progress at Euro 2020

Spain earned their first win at Euro 2020 to confirm their place in the last-16.

The 2012 champions had previously been held to draws by Poland and Sweden but bounced back to thrash Slovakia 5-0.

Aymeric Laporte, Pablo Sarabia and Ferran Torres all scored their first goals of the tournament and Spain were helped along even further by own goals from Martin Dubravka and Juraj Kucka.

The match did not start well for Spain though when Alvaro Morata missed their fifth successive penalty kick after a foul on Koke was given by the video assistant referee.

It did not take long for Spain to go ahead though, and it came from the worst mistake of the entire tournament so far. With the ball coming down high from a deflection, Newcastle United keeper Dubravka could only palm it under the bar to gift Spain the opener.

And the second came in first-half stoppage time when Laporte scored from a corner.

Sarabia got on the scoresheet just after the restart too when he directed a first-time shot into the bottom corner from Jordi Alba’s cross.

Ferran Torres came off the bench and netted Spain’s fourth with his first touch when he flicked the ball past Dubravka after Sarabia’s assist.

There was still time for one more too when another substitute, Pau Torres, headed towards goal at a corner and Kucka deflected the ball into his own goal.

Cover Photo: “File:4-adidas-euro-2020-ball-min.jpg” by Ik ben groot is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0