International Football 12 October 2010

Spanish sub sinks spirited Scots

Scotland 2 Spain 3 (Glasgow Euro qualifier 12 October 2010)
Scotland fought back from 2 down against the European and world champions Spain at Hampden Park, but Llorentes came off the bench to settle the match for the visitors. Spain played some fluent football forcing McGregor to earn his crust in the Scotland goal and keep the world champions at bay until a minute before the break when Whittaker blocked a cross in the box with his elbow and the referee awarded Spain a penalty. McGregor got a hand to Villa's low spot kick but couldn't keep the ball out, and the Scottish keeper was beaten again in the 55th minute when Iniesta passed the ball into the corner of the net from 12 yards, but 3 minutes later Naismith got on the end of a Miller cross with a diving header to bring Scotland back into the game, and when Pique turned a low cross into his own net a memorable night for Scotland seemed to be on the cards, but with just over 10 minutes remaining, substitute Llorentes popped up at the far post to convert a Capdevila cross and give Spain an expected victory. The dismissal of Steven Whittaker for a 2nd yellow cards with a minute to go was another sour note for the Scots.

Llorente knocks in the Spanish winner

Meanwhile England were held by the Balkan's smallest country, Montenegro, to a goalless draw at Wembley. England had a penalty shout for handball in the 78th minute, but Montenegro came closest when Jovanovic rattled the crossbar with a looping shot 6 minutes from time.

In other Euro qualifiers Klaas Jan Huntelaar and Ibrahim Afellay each scored twice as the Dutch battered Sweden 4-1 in Amsterdam, and Valentin Stocker grabbed a couple for Switzerland who put the visiting Welsh to the sword by the same score line. Northern Ireland drew 1-1 away to the Faroe Islands while the Republic of Ireland got the same result in Slovakia and Turkey were stunned 1-0 in Azerbaijan. A goal in Stoppage time gave Hungary a 2-1 win in Finland while Portugal managed a 3-1 win in Iceland and Germany were 3-0 winners in Kazakhstan. Belgium scored twice in the last 3 minutes to take the lead against 10 man Austria but the visitors struck late into stoppage time to earn a 4-4 draw while Serbia's match in Italy was abandoned after 7 minutes due to crowd trouble.

In friendly matches Japan played out a goalless draw in South Korea as did Colombia away to the USA while Ecuador and Poland shared 4 goals in Canada. Venezuela earned a 2-2 draw away to Mexico and Chile won by a single goal in Oman while Uruguay put 4 past China without reply in Wuhan. Peru lost 1-0 away to Panama and Norway were defeated 2-1 in Croatia while Saudi Arabia played twice in a day in Turkey beating Gabon 1-0 and then losing 2-0 to Bulgaria. The Philippines enjoyed a 5-0 win over Macau in Taiwan