2010 World Cup Qualifying: Riera's Last-Minute Strike Gives Spain 2-1 Win Over Turkey
April 3rd 2009 21:07
Playing in Istanbul is never easy for visiting teams. Similarly to most stadiums in South America, the crowd is loud, hostile, and never lets up in the entire 90 minutes of play. Fatih Terim counted on the crowd to provide a twelfth man to his team as they were meeting Spain for the second time after a 1-0 loss at the Bernabeu on Saturday.
Spurred on by a frantic crowd, the Turks were the first to get on the scoresheet at the 25th minute after some lazy defending by Pique and Marchena. At the other end, Volkan Demirel had a relatively quiet first half as Spain had settled for a 4-5-1 formation which isolated Torres in front. Without proper support, the Liverpool striker was relatively harmless. La Roja tried to respond by pushing up Silva and Riera on the wings, but Turkey was well organized defensively this time around. Instead of running around like mad dogs, they efficiently used the offside-trap to prevent the speedy Spanish forwards from running behind their backs.
Spain finally got a break at the hour mark when a hand-ball was signaled inside Volkan's box. Alonso easily converted the penalty kick to make it 1-1. The visitors picked up a considerable amount of steam after their goal. Much of that was caused by the entrance of Santi Cazorla in Senna's place. The switch meant that Spain would play an offense-minded 4-2-3-1 with Xavi and Alonso as the holding midfielders and Riera, Silva, Cazorla as the attacking options supporting Torres. Although Spain got a much better handle on the ball from that point on, the final ball was still severely lacking.
Finally, it was substitute Daniel Guiza (who came in for Torres, at the 85th minute) who engineered the winning goal with a superb run down the right wing and a low cross to Riera who slid the ball in between Volkan's legs. The goal came at the 91st minute a play, a real downer for Turkey who are 0-2 against Spain in this round of qualifying.
Turquia Vs Espaņa 1-2 Eliminatorias Sudafrica 2010 Resumen - video powered by Metacafe
Spain's line-up: Iker Casillas; Sergio Ramos, Gerard Pique, Carlos Marchena, Joan Capdevila; David Silva (Sergi Busquets, 74th), Marcos Senna (Santi Cazorla, 65th), Xavi Hernandez, Xabi Alonso, Albert Riera; Fernando Torres (Daniel Guiza, 85th).
Spurred on by a frantic crowd, the Turks were the first to get on the scoresheet at the 25th minute after some lazy defending by Pique and Marchena. At the other end, Volkan Demirel had a relatively quiet first half as Spain had settled for a 4-5-1 formation which isolated Torres in front. Without proper support, the Liverpool striker was relatively harmless. La Roja tried to respond by pushing up Silva and Riera on the wings, but Turkey was well organized defensively this time around. Instead of running around like mad dogs, they efficiently used the offside-trap to prevent the speedy Spanish forwards from running behind their backs.
Spain finally got a break at the hour mark when a hand-ball was signaled inside Volkan's box. Alonso easily converted the penalty kick to make it 1-1. The visitors picked up a considerable amount of steam after their goal. Much of that was caused by the entrance of Santi Cazorla in Senna's place. The switch meant that Spain would play an offense-minded 4-2-3-1 with Xavi and Alonso as the holding midfielders and Riera, Silva, Cazorla as the attacking options supporting Torres. Although Spain got a much better handle on the ball from that point on, the final ball was still severely lacking.
Finally, it was substitute Daniel Guiza (who came in for Torres, at the 85th minute) who engineered the winning goal with a superb run down the right wing and a low cross to Riera who slid the ball in between Volkan's legs. The goal came at the 91st minute a play, a real downer for Turkey who are 0-2 against Spain in this round of qualifying.
Turquia Vs Espaņa 1-2 Eliminatorias Sudafrica 2010 Resumen - video powered by Metacafe
Spain's line-up: Iker Casillas; Sergio Ramos, Gerard Pique, Carlos Marchena, Joan Capdevila; David Silva (Sergi Busquets, 74th), Marcos Senna (Santi Cazorla, 65th), Xavi Hernandez, Xabi Alonso, Albert Riera; Fernando Torres (Daniel Guiza, 85th).
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