28 March 2015
Alvaro Morata kept up his impressive recent goalscoring form by hitting the winner in Spain’s 1-0 Euro 2016 qualifying success over Ukraine in Seville on Friday evening.
The 22-year-old, who has two in as many games in all competitions for the Bianconeri, bagged his first international strike for La Furia Roja's senior side when he latched on to Koke’s pass before firing a looped effort past shotstopper Andriy Pyatov on 28 minutes.
Morata was then replaced by Barcelona’s Pedro midway through the second half as Vicente del Bosque’s men held on to register an important triumph following heavy pressure from the visitors late on.
Last night’s result sees the European Championship holders remain three points behind early pacesetters Slovakia in Group C. Spain are next in action on Tuesday when they travel to Ajax’s Amsterdam ArenA to face Holland in a friendly.
Meanwhile over in Switzerland, Stephan Lichtsteiner completed 80 minutes as the Rossocrociati swept Estonia aside by a 3-0 scoreline at the Swissporarena.
The Swiss secured a comfortable victory thanks to first-half goals from Fabian Schar and Granit Xhaka and Haris Seferovic’s strike ten minutes from time.
Vladimir Petkovic’s troops, who welcome USA to the Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich for a friendly on Tuesday, remain third in Group E, six points adrift of leaders England after they eased past Lithuania in London.
Earlier on in the evening, Stefano Sturaro played the full 90 minutes as Italy Under-21s recorded an entertaining 2-2 friendly draw with Germany in Paderborn.
Luigi Di Biagio’s lads took the lead on 40 minutes when Marcello Trotta converted only for Leonardo Bittencourt to level proceedings ten minutes after the restart.
Simone Verdi then made it 2-1 to the Azzurrini with around 13 minutes remaining before Moritz Leitner’s late spot-kick ensured a share of the spoils for the hosts.
Next up for Di Biagio’s charges sees them face Serbia Under-21s in another friendly at Benevento’s Stadio Ciro Vigorito on Monday night.
