Spain barely won their first title defence match against Georgia, beating their opponents 1-0 in an extremely competitive fixture.
With barely four minutes till the end of the match, Roberto Soldado was able to score a goal for La Roja, securing their first FIFA World Cup title match.
Making it 23 straight games won, Spain are now tied with Georgia in their World Cup qualifying group with three points to their name. If Spain make it past the qualifying rounds and win the World Cup, it would make it their fourth consecutive major title
win. They would have two FIFA World Cups and two Euro Cups.
However, that is only if they are able to win the World Cup. They just barely won their first qualifying match and it seems that Vicente del Bosque’s advice was right, Spain should not take a single team lightly.
Georgia definitely gave Spain a difficult time and even Spain’s goal scorer, Soldado, admitted that it was a difficult match with a team that made sure it knew how to play defence.
“It was a hard-fought win against a rival that gave us the ball but pulled back into its area,” said Soldado.
Beating Saudi Arabia 5-0 in a friendly last Friday, it was thought that the Spanish would be able to pass through the group stages with some ease, however, that is not the case.
It seems as though the deep defensive-minded opponents are going to give Spain a difficult time. Ever since their defeat to Switzerland in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Spain have been known for finding it difficult to crack through deep defensive game strategies.
Even Spanish boss, Del Bosque, commented on Georgia’s defending and said, “They put us in a lot of difficulty with their enthusiasm and their ability to defend all our attacks through both the centre and the wings.”
He hailed the Georgians at the end of the match on their “extraordinary performance.”
The closest Spain got to scoring, apart from Soldado’s goal, was in the first half when David Silva hit the post.
However, in the 54th minute, Aleksander Amisulashvili, scared the Spaniards as well, with a shot that deflected off the post.
However, the Spanish are not World and European Champions for no reason and they were able to finally break through Georgia’s defences and scored an 86th minute goal, where Soldado capitalized on Cesc Fabregas’ cross.
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