Spain 2-0 England; The Lions have been Slain!

What can I say? We did the business and we did it in style. Two perfectly placed goals, one from the golden boot of David Villa and one of the young head of new boy Fernando Llorente sealed the deal in Sevilla tonight as La Furia Roja continue to dominate Europe.

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…