This victory really couldn’t have come at a better time as today the February FIFA rankings were released and once again, since July of last year we’re ranked number one. Sure these are just numbers given by football’s governing body using a questionable method but today when we stepped out on the pitch of El Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán we showed just why we topped the list again. This also marked the 29th straight match of our impressive undefeated streak which is quite an achievement all on it’s own.

Both teams started without a few of their key players as England was missing Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard, Manchester United and England captain Rio Ferdinand and his domestic teammate Wayne Rooney.

Meanwhile we were also missing our captain and star centre back Carles Puyol as he picked up a knock in his match for Barcelona against Sporting Gijón on the weekend which as a result made him withdraw from the squad that played today. We also missed Real Betis defender Juanito as he picked up an injury while training with the squad earlier this week.

At first I questioned Del Bosque’s lineup as it looked something like this:
Casillas
Sergio Ramos/Gerard Piqué/Carlos Marchena/Joan Capdevila
Marcos Senna
Xavi/Xabi Alonso/Iniesta
David Villa/Fernando Torres

No left footers causing Andrés to play on the left flank and Xavi who usually plays a central role started on the right flank. Despite all my doubt these two men impressed as always and showed just how valuable they are to La Selección.

Overall the game was a comfortable victory for us but the opening moments were pretty scary as Agbonlahor and Gareth Barry had chances to put England up but missed, luckily for us.

The Three Lions were probably left to rue these missed opportunities as on the 36th minute Xabi Alonso who was dominating the midfield put a perfect through ball to the feed of Euro 2008 star David Villa who then beat Everton defender Phil Jakielka and slotted it past David James. El Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán exploded as the fans realized how much this goal meant. Alonso and Senna both had decent chances before the half ended as well, but nothing doing.

Pepe Reina came in for Palop who was solid throughout the first half. Not sure why Beckham was in the England squad but none the less, he did come on at half time. Even with the LA Galaxy star midfielder, the visitors never created any decent chances right away and the game was swinging more in out favour than ever.

Not long after Villa was substituted for his Valencia teammate David Silva who didn’t start because he came back from his injury not too long ago. Fernando Torres was also substituted by Athletic Bilbao striker Fernando Llorente. Our two best top strikers off and we still manage to score again, that’s a sign of a top class team.

Xavi was the provider for the final nail in England’s coffin when he sent in a perfectly weighted free kick on which new boy Fernando Llorente put his head through and this goal coming in the 83rd minute sealed The Three Lions’ fate.

England and West Ham front man Carlton Cole had a perfect opportunity in the dying minutes of the match when he dribbled around Reina but Carlos Marchena was lucky there to clear the ball off the line. That was as close as England would get as the referee blew his whistle to call the game to a close and sealed our 29th straight game in which we have been undefeated.

The city of Sevilla is naturally one which is rich in culture, tradition, and is always bound to be buzzing at all times of the night. The city after this victory was much different however, it was more full of live (if that’s possible!) and people were singing and dancing through the streets. The people were absolutely ecstatic, it was simply amazing.

A point that has to be said about yesterday’s match is this – Xavi is the best play maker in the world. If you watched the game you can’t not agree, the boy is pure class. He was the MOTM by miles and even though the team was pretty flawless, Xavi was in a class all on his own, what a stunning performance. He does everything, he’s a workhorse in the midfield running all over the pitch, breaking up plays, recovering balls, going in hard to win every 50/50, truly is the lynchpin for our squad.

If anyone was questioning our ability I can assure you it is still there and it proves the depth in our squad when we have players like Silva, Güiza, Árbeloa, Fàbregas (when healthy) and Cazorla coming off the bench. The win at home to a team of England’s stature is definitely a sign that we still have what it takes and can defeat some of the best teams around. It also proves that size doesn’t matter seeing as England has (physically) one of the largest squads but we danced around them like it was La Fería.

The only bad news last night was that Llorente after scoring his first goal for Spain did limp off the pitch and will miss his match for Athletic Club this weekend against Recreativo de Huelva.

Usually I would sit here and write more about things from La Furia Roja’s perspective, but this time I’m going to critique the match. England were awful, they may have started good but really lack the pace and appear just to be no more than an average European team. I don’t think anyone can be serious when they say England will be serious World and Euro challengers in the next coming tournaments because they’re clearly weak. I don’t care that Rooney, Ferdinand, and Hargreaves were missing, sure they may have helped a bit but the outcome would have probably been the same. Also it doesn’t matter what fans consider the “stronger league” because even though 3 of the last 4 teams in the Champions League were English they still greatly struggled yesterday in Sevilla. Domestic and international football are two different things, look at the foreigners in La Liga compared to the foreigners in the Premier Leauge. Needless to say the influx is definitely in the Prem.

I think we can definitely look forward to the coming months ahead when we continue on the road to South Africa 2010. We have the best squad in history and the highest confidence to go with it too, who will stop La Furia Roja is what I want to know…

Three days ago Vicente Del Bosque annouced that Valencia duo David Villa and David Silva, as well as Sevilla duo Diego Capel and Jesús Navas would be called up to the squad for match against the Three Lions. Just yesterday however López Caro, manager of the Spanish U-21 Team announced that Capel and Mata were included in their squad to face Norway in a friendly being held in Cartagena, Andalucía on Tuesday February 10th. The Spanish “sub-21″ team is preparing for the qualififying games as they look to qualify for the U-21 European Championships being held in Denmark in 2011. Also announced yesterday was Del Bosque is concerned with Navas’ homesickness and he feels that calling him up to the first team could be a mistake as he will not be able to travel when La Selección travel to other European nations for our upcoming World Cup 2010 qualifiers. Vicente said that he will only call Navas up to the match against England if he can prove that he will be able to travel with the selection in the future without risk of getting homesick and having to return home. This sparked anger amongst the Sevilla management as the Rojiblancos’ sporting director “Monchi” said “Jesús is much better now and the last time he felt the affects of his homesickness was when we played Fenerbahçe in Istanbul, and that was only because we were there for 10 days.” “The selection does not travel to other countries for this long so as far as I am concerned Jesús will be fine.”. Clearly it looks like Navas has come a long way and his problem has much improved. He has been one of Sevilla’s and La Liga’s outstanding performances thus far in the season and would have been called up to the national squad a long time ago if it wasn’t for his homesickness problem. Unfortunately though today as the lineups were announced Jesús Navas was not included which personally I’m aboslutely furious at. It would have been the perfect opportunity to slip him into the squad as it’ll be in his hometown of Sevilla and he would have been able to play in front of the fans that sing his name every week and truly performed well for Del Bosque. I also feel bad for Jesús as Mr. Vicente annouced some months ago that Navas will be in the squad as he wants him to break into the national team.

The squad to face England is as followed.
Goalkeepers
Iker Casillas (Real Madrid)
José Manuel Reina (Liverpool)
Defenders
Raúl Albiol (Valencia)
Álvaro Arbeloa (Liverpool)
Joan Capdevila (Villarreal)
Juanito (Real Betis)
Carlos Marchena (Valencia)
Gerard Piqué (Barcelona)
Carles Puyol (Barcelona)
Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid)
Midfielders
Xabi Alonso (Liverpool)
Sergi Busquets (Barcelona)
Santiago Cazorla (Villarreal)
Xavi Hernández (Barcelona)
Andrés Iniesta (Barcelona)
Albert Riera (Liverpool)
David Silva (Valencia)
Marcos Senna (Villarreal)
Forwards
Daniel Güiza (Fenerbahçe)
Fernando Llorente (Athletic Club)
Fernando Torres (Liverpool)
David Villa (Valencia)

No surprise in any of the lineup really but my personal opinion is that Diego Capel is better than Albert Riera and Jesús Navas is far superior to Santi Cazorla in both skill and speed, shame the Sevilla wingers couldn’t make the lineup.

There’s no room for Guti, Raúl nor Joaquín which puts a grand smile on my face because quite frankly they’ve never done the business for Spain before so why do they deserve another chance? “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” is the perfect aphorism to describe Del Bosque’s selection as most of the players in the squad were also in Luis Aragonés’ that won the European Championships this past summer. Also, dispite Capel and Navas not making the squad I am pleased that Athletic Bilbao striker Fernando Llorente who has been on fire as late (scoring against Sevilla in the Copa del Rey two days ago) is included in the squad. Also included in the squad for the first time are Barça duo Gerard Piqué and Sergi Busquets who have obviously played a large part in the Catalans’ phenomenal season thus far. It’s good to see that Del Bosque is at least starting to bring some youth through the system because by the time Euro 2012 comes around we will have some players who will be getting on in years and not able to perform like its 2008 all over again.

Rafael Benítez, manager of Liverpool is concerned with Del Bosque’s decision to call Fernando Torres and has voiced his concern today as he feels El Niño should be allowed to rest having just come back from a recent injury. Del Bosque defended himself saying that Torres is a tremendous athlete and will be fine (encouraging enough Liverpool fans?).

Staying in England now as today the Three Lions’ Italian manager Fabio Capello said that his men are stronger than Spain and will beat them. Hmm, well let’s adress a few things here Mr. Capello, 5 of our players play in the Premier League against English talent every week and have been extremely successful, how many English players play in Spain and can call themselves successful? England is a physically superior side, I’ll give them that, but which players know how to play against Spanish quick and skilled opposition? None. It’s good that Capello has faith in his inconsistent squad but sorry Fabio, you’re comments are way too optimistic.

With England’s recent success under Mr. Capello there is no doubt that is this clash will be pretty difficult but currently as the best team in Europe I don’t doubt for one second that we’ll come out on top. Realistically I’m predicting a 3-1 scorline in our favour with goals from Torres, Villa, and Xavi. I’ll have more updates on the match as it happens.