A Covid outbreak in the Spanish camp forced La Roja to field ten debutantes in their match against Lithuania. The young guns impressed, though, beating their opponents four-nil. France, on the other hand, beat Bulgaria 3-0 with the help of Olivier Giroud.
Aitor Fernandez, Oscar Gil, Hugo Guillamon, Oscar Mingueza, Marc Cucurella, Martin Zubimendi, Brahim Diaz, Gonzalo Villar, Manu Garcia, Abel Ruiz; ten youngsters made their debuts for the Spanish senior team against Lithuania. However, it was not out of an obligation towards providing the next generation with opportunities, rather a precautionary measure taken to protect the senior team, who had recently suffered from a Covid outbreak.
Luis Enrique relinquished his managerial responsibility for the friendly match to Luis de la Fuente, whose U21 Spanish side was eliminated in the semi-finals of the U21 Euro recently. De la Fuente’s young-look Spain took the lead in just the third minute of the match, with Valencia center-back Guillamon firing his team in front. AC Milan loanee Brahim Diaz doubled La Roja’s lead in the 24th minute with a brilliant goal. The attacker was found in space on the right side of the box by Villar before he smashed the ball across the goalkeeper.
Spain were awarded a penalty just before the half-hour mark when Bryan Gil – the only non-debutante – was brought down inside the box. However, the subsequent spot-kick was missed by Abel Ruiz. Nonetheless, La Roja increased their lead to three shortly after the break, as Juan Miranda scored a stunning free-kick. Substitute Javi Puado – yet another debutante – made it 4-0 to Spain in the 72nd minute as he latched onto a Gil pass before firing the ball in the bottom corner.
France had an early scare in their friendly against Bulgaria when Karim Benzema was hauled off injured before half-time. Olivier Giroud, who came in Benzema’s place, scored twice to help Les Bleus beat their opponents 3-0.
Antoine Griezmann opened the scoring in the 29th minute via a deflected bicycle kick. The Frenchman showed the impeccable technique to pull off the acrobatic kick in a crowded space but was helped considerably by a huge deflection. Giroud scored twice late – both from close range – to seal the win for France.
