In this summer's World Cup in North America, Spain and England took gold and bronze respectively. In the autumn, the major nations will meet in the Nations League's A-division Group 3. In Saturday's group-stage opener at Wembley in London, the major nations provided some serious entertainment.
Despite a Spanish comeback, Harry Kane praised the English effort.
“Same thing here”
We played against the world champions, the European champions, and we kept up with them, he told the BBC .
I said earlier that we reached a good level during the World Cup, but that we didn't quite manage to maintain it for the full 90 minutes. It was probably the same here.
Star striker Lamine Yamal opened the scoring when he gave Spain a 1–0 lead after Marc Guéhi's sloppy play in England's build-up. The home team then turned the game around to make it 2–1 late in the first half through goals from Anthony Gordon and Harry Kane, although Spain's Marc Cucurella was the last to touch Kane's header before it went in.
Rib meeting
In the second half, Kane and England had a golden opportunity to take a real grip on the game after Spain captain Rodri was penalised for bringing down Jude Bellingham in the penalty area. However, the England captain slipped at the penalty spot and shot against the crossbar as England could have gone 3-1 up.
Instead, substitute Álex Baena was able to equalise for the away team, before Mikel Oyarzabal, also a substitute, decided the score with his 3–2 goal.
Spain thus remains undefeated in international men's football in recent years. The last loss came against Colombia (0–1) in an international match in March 2024.
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