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Spain remain atop Group 4 of Nations League A after they and other heavyweights Germany recorded narrow victories on Saturday.
Mikel Oyarzabal scored early to help a disappointing Spain secure a 1-0 win over Switzerland in Madrid. The Real Sociedad striker snatched the only goal of the match in the 14th minute after Switzerland tried to get the ball from behind but failed miserably, leaving Oyarzabal with a single shot.
“The goal is not his mistake, it is our good game,” said Luis Enrique, Spain’s coach. “It was a great job from our team that was rewarded with a goal.”
Ansu Fati and Oyarzabal, Barcelona’s teenage sensation, turned down new opportunities as Luis Enrique’s team failed to increase their lead.
Luis Enrique had chosen an experimental team with a lot of youth, led by a couple of veterans, including Sergio Ramos from Real Madrid and Sergio Busquets from Barcelona. Both were solid at the Alfredo Di Stéfano stadium at Real Madrid’s training ground, where Spain did enough to win but were far from their best.
Switzerland opened the first opportunity of the match, but David de Gea reacted well to deny Loris Benito, before the visitors gave Spain the lead on a plate. De Gea’s rival Yann Sommer attempted a short goal kick but missed his pass to Granit Xhaka, with Mikel Merino cutting to steal the ball and feed his Real Sociedad teammate Oyarzabal, who finished off with ease.
Fati, who became the youngest scorer in Spain’s history in their previous Nations League match against Ukraine in September, could have doubled the lead early in the second half, but his goal was blocked. Oyarzabal then hit the wing from close range as Spain began to create more chances and the game stretched, but neither side could find another goal.
Adama Traoré, who made his competition debut as a substitute after winning his first international match against Portugal on Wednesday, said: “In the last third we couldn’t finish and we have to keep working on that, especially me. But we leave here with the three points ”.
Germany scored both halves to beat Ukraine 2-1 in Kiev for their first victory in this competition.
Matthias Ginter put Germany ahead in the 20th minute after a good job by Antonio Rüdiger, and Leon Goretzka took advantage of a mistake by Ukrainian goalkeeper Georgiy Bushchan to head in his second goal four minutes after the restart.
Despite having the rested Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig players back in the line-up, the Germans were far from their best and a penalty from Ruslan Malinovskyi in the 77th minute woke up the 20,000 spectators in the stadium. Kiev Olympian.
In a sloppy first half, Germany repeatedly lost possession, allowing Ukraine to quickly counterattack before Ginter’s goal calmed their nerves.
Having conceded a draw in each of their three previous matches, Germany was eager to build up their lead and forged several good opportunities. But Bushchan had a good day making a series of saves before letting the ball slip out of his hands, allowing Goretzka to score in the 49th minute. Then he was available again to prevent them from scoring, with a magnificent slap. Serge Gnabry’s shot was deflected.
Malinovskyi withdrew one from the spot, but the Germans managed to protect their lead despite desperate late attacks from the hosts.
“Obviously I’m happy to have won, but we could have been leading 3-0 or 4-0,” said Germany coach Joachim Löw. “In some cases we gave the ball too easily. When we were 2-0 up they were tired and maybe we should have played more counterattacks. But overall we were solid and we didn’t give them too many chances, “he said.
On Tuesday Ukraine host Spain, while the Germans, who had not won a single match in the 2018-19 opening competition and would have been relegated had it not been for the decision to expand the League A groups to four teams, face Switzerland.
