Thaindian News

Madrid, May 27 (IANS) The Spanish national team enjoyed a comfortable 2-0 win over Serbia in their first preparation game for the European football championship.

Playing in the Swiss town of Saint Gallan Saturday, the reigning European and World champions fielded a side without players from FC Barcelona and Athletic Club Bilbao, who played the Kings Cup final Friday night.

That allowed coach Vicente del Bosque to debuts several players during the game and Adrian Lopez especially took advantage of his chance, Xinhua reported.

The Atletico Madrid forward scored Spain’s first goal in the 64th minute of the game, following a move started by another debutant, Benat Etxabarria, who set up Jesus Navas to cross the ball for Adrian to score.

Ten minutes later Adrian provoked a penalty which allowed Santi Cazorla to net Spain’s second of the game, although it has to be said that the referee was generous in giving the penalty given that Adrian looked to have dived under pressure from Serbian defender Branislav Ivanovic.

The first half saw Spain in charge but Del Bosque’s side was unable to score despite creating several chances, but it was not until David Silva came into the game at half time that Spain found a cutting edge.

Other players who made a good claim for a place in Del Bosque’s final 23 man squad, which will be named Sunday, were right back Juanfran Torres, who played for most of the game.

Juanfran looks as if he will be included after it was confirmed that his main rival for the squad, Athletic Bilbao defender Andoni Iriola is likely to miss out as a result of pelvic and ankle problems that he has been carrying for the past few weeks.

Meanwhile Sergio Ramos played in central defence, which implies he will provide cover for Carles Puyol, while striker Alvaro Negredo was also involved in the first half and could have earned a place in the squad given the absence of Barcelona’s David Villa.

Spain play South Korea Wednesday before facing China in Seville June 3.

Brief Scores:
At Amsterdam: Netherlands 1 (Van Persie 45) Bulgaria 2 (Popov 49-pen, Mizanski 90+2)
At Leiria, Portugal: Portugal 0 Macedonia 0
At Saint Gallen, Switzerland: Spain 2 (Adrian 64, Cazorla 75) Serbia 0
At Basel: Switzerland 5 (Derdiyok 21, 23, 50, Lichtsteiner 67, Mehmedi 76) Germany 3 (Hummels 45, Sch|rrle 64, Reus 72)
At Klagenfurt, Austria: Poland 1 (Perquis 30) Slovakia 0
At Dublin: Ireland 1 (Long 78) Bosnia-Herzegovina 0
At Hamburg, Germany: Brazil 3 (Hulk 8, 40, Zimling 13-og) Denmark 1 (Bendtner 71)
At Pula, Croatia: Croatia 3 (Corluka 16, Kalinic 20, Vukojevic 81) Estonia 1 (Vassiljev 83)
At Oslo: Norway 0 England 1 (Young 9)
At Hartberg, Austria: Czech Republic 2 (Baros 17-pen, Lafata 90+2) Israel 1 (Shechter 45)
At Kufstein, Austria: Greece 1 (Torosidis 8) Slovenia 1 (Kurtic 87)
At Salzburg, Austria: Finland 3 (Eremenko 19, Pukki 73, Hetemaj 90) Turkey 2 (Yilmaz 21, 54)