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Paco Alcacer’s brace sets up Spain 4-1 thrashing of Wales
Paco Alcacer continued with his sublime form and made his case for a permanent place in the national team through a blistering brace that set up Spain’s thumping 4-1 victory over Wales on Thursday at the Principality Stadium.
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Alcacer was given a start by new Spanish manager Luis Enrique and he well and truly justified that decision with his predatory runs that tore the Wales defence with ease as his stokes in the eighth and 29th minute took his tally to eight goals for his country in 14 international caps. Skipper Sergio Ramos and Marc Bartra were the other two goal-scorers for Spain.
The match began with a minute’s silence for the victims of the Majorca flood with has claimed the lives of 12 people. Yet, it took just few more minutes for 50,000 odd people at the Principality Stadium to turn silent once again when Alcacer broke the deadlock. Eleven minutes later, Enrique’s side got their second of the match through an unmarked Ramos, who headed in one into the net through a free-kick from AC Milan’s Suso.
The dominance and control over the match grew for the 2010 World Cup champions as Wales looked a side that was no match for them. With their star forward Gareth Bale sitting out of the match injured, Wales coach and Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs had more reasons to worry as his team was completely brushed aside ahead of their Nations League match against the Republic of Ireland.
“It was an intense game. I loved my team’s attitude. They did what I wanted them to do,” said Enrique, who was indeed proud of his team’s efforts.
“Everyone who participated today was at a high level,” he added as quoted by AFP.
Alcacer was in the mix of things in the 29th minute with a second goal on the night as the visitors took a clean 3-0 lead even before the break. The fourth goal for the former European champions was netted by Marc Bartra, coming in as a substitute in the 74th minute after Enrique decided to take off Ramos, David De Gea and Saul Niguez at half-time.
But there was a consolation goal for Wales who found their scorer in Sam Vokes in the 89th minute. Wales have now lost three of the six matches that they’ve played since Giggs became the manager.
Ruing the fact that there were problems with the very basic in the team, Giggs said, ” The disappointment for me was in the basics. If you don’t do the basics against a very good team, you’re in trouble.”.
“There were so many mistakes. Spain are such a good technical team but we gave away two poor goals at set-pieces. After that you are chasing shadows. We got taught a lesson in many aspects,” he added further.
Image credit-beIn Sports
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