Barcelona young forward Ansu Fati became Spain’s youngest goalscorer in history, after scoring in their 4-0 win against Ukraine in Sunday’s League A, Group 4 of the UEFA Nations League clash in Madrid.
Fati marked his first international start with a fine effort to make it 3-0 in the 32nd minute.
And at aged 17 years and 311 days, Fati became the youngest player to net for Spain, breaking the record that was set in 1925 by Juan Errazquin, who was 18 years and 344 days old when he struck three times against Switzerland.
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Also on target for Spain against Ukraine are Sergio Ramos, who bagged a brace in the 3rd (penalty) and 29th minutes, while Manchester City new signing Ferran Torres got the fourth goal on 84 minutes.
In the group’s other game Germany recorded their second draw following a 1-1 scoreline at Switzerland.
City’s Ilkay Gundogan put Germany 1-0 ahead on 14 minutes before Silvan Widmer equalised for Switzerland in the 58th minute.
Spain now top the group after two games on four points while Germany are third with two points.
In other results, Wales beat visiting Bulgaria 1-0, Ireland lost 1-0 at home to Finland, Slovenia beat Moldova 1-0 and Greece defeated Kosovo 2-1 away.
Also, Andorra lost 1-0 at home to Faroe Island and Malta were held 1-1 at home to Latvia.
UEFA Nations League results:
(League A, Group 4)
Spain 4-0 Ukraine
Switzerland 1-1 Germany
(League B, Group 4)
Wales 1-0 Bulgaria
Ireland 0-1 Finland
(League C, Group 3)
Slovenia 1-0 Moldova
Kosovo 1-2 Greece
(League D, Group 1)
Andorra 0-1 Faroe Island
Malta 1-1 Latvia
By James Agberebi
5 Comments
Goal rain for Spain and pain for Ukraine in Madrid.
This match was a close replica of our friendly with Ukraine. Just like we did, Spain dominated the first half. As they did against us, Ukraine improved in the second half. The difference between Spain and Nigeria is that Spain took their chances and wrapped up the match in the first half. While Nigeria were dominant in the first half, we missed numerous chances to finish up the game, and allowed Ukraine back into it in the second half. Yes, their equalizer was daylight robbery, but we still should have won that game by a mile if we had taken a fraction of the chances that came our way.
For Nigeria to compete favorably with the elite footballing nations on the planet, we must take our chances when they come, ruthlessly. A paradigm shift is needed. This attitude of relaxing when we take the lead in a match must be done away with. Instead, the players should remain hungry for goals, for the whole duration of the game. Focus is the key.
I scratched my head, but couldn’t think of a better way of saying it!
That is why i love manu/amunike 2013 and 2015 under 17 set up. Becos of their ability to utilise chances. Those guys utilises 90 percent of their chances even half chances including freekicks and outside the box, thats why their score line was always incredible including 6 1 against the defending champions(mexico). Unlike the super eagles who only manage to utilise 50 percent of their 100 percents chances. You canot win a major truphy with such artitude. We saw how holand lost their 2010 wcup oportunity to spain due to chance missing. It also afected cotedevoir with their star parded team, ended up with one nations cup instead of at list three. Now my question is what happened to our u 17 boys ability to utilise chances or score wonder goals when they get to the mainteam? Is it that the goal post becomes smaller? Or the field becomes wilder? Or the ball becoms ticker? Or their boots becomes oversized? I still dont understand the mistery behind their barreness in the biger stages
Seriously, African FAs need to continually and vigorously push for reviews in FIFA’s nationalisation clauses. Otherwise at this rate, chances of an African or Asian country winning the senior World Cup in the near future will be thin – with rich European countries luring and ‘buying’ out all pure talents of African origin.
As UEFA has introduced financial fair play to ensure UCL is not monetized and Mandollar City FC does not buy out every pure talent on the planet, FIFA needs to do something similar. They should make it extremely difficult for countries like England, Spain, France and Germany to continue to poach the best talents of African origin.
“…rich European countries luring and ‘buying’ out all pure talents of African origin…”
Really….???
The last time I checked, it was African countries LURING kids born/bred in Europe, trained by Europe, with Europe’s facilities and resources to come play for them.