England 2-2 Spain: international friendly – as it happened (2024)

And that’s that! Spain salvage an unlikely draw with two late super-strikes! England were the better team for the first 89 minutes, and will feel rather aggrieved at the result. But look on the bright side: they’ve played very well indeed against high-quality opposition, they’re still unbeaten under Gareth Southgate, and at least this didn’t happen to them against Scotland.

What drama here! Spain knock it around a bit, then launch it long down the inside-right channel. Isco chests down as he strides into the box, turns brilliantly and, from the tightest of angles, nutmegs Heaton at the near post to equalise!

90 min +4: Well, this is a tense end we didn’t expect! But Townsend eats up plenty of the clock with a long dribble down the right. He finds Lingard in the middle, but the striker’s offside.

90 min +2: They nearly let it slip! Morata cuts inside from the left and tees up the ball for Isco, who is tearing into the area. He must score! But he’s put off by Stones. His shot is deflected wide left, and nothing comes of the corner.

90 min: There will be five added minutes. Cue quite a loud symphony of whistling. England have been far the better team; they’ll be sick if they let this slip.

This is a pearler! Rashford is surrounded on the edge of the Spanish box as England pour forward. He’s dispossessed. Spain break. Aspas dribbles down the right, cuts inside, gets Stones backtracking and panicking, and curls a beauty into the top left corner! That’s a magnificent finish, though Stones gave him all opportunity to shoot.

87 min: On the Independent Television channel, Glenn Hoddle has given the man-of-the-match award to Jamie Vardy. Seems fair enough.

85 min: Spain keep coming at England - Herrera is buzzing around in his trademark determined style - but the home side are holding firm, looking determined and competent.

83 min: Corner for Spain down the left. Isco takes another dreadful set piece, and it’s easily hacked clear by first man Clyne. Meanwhile here’s a lesson in perspective from Elliot Wilson: “The only thing that depresses me more than Trump - and I mean this - is the prospect of Rooney returning for England to play that vital tripartite role of: dropping deep to play short balls back to the original recipient; swinging long balls from one side of the pitch to the other, precisely but for no good reason; and trapping it like Carlton Palmer in the box. I remember a story about Alen Boksic pledging to pay Noel Whelan to eff off when he was at Boro. Can we do the same with Rooney?”

81 min: A free kick for Spain, to the left of the England D. Isco looks for the top left, but only batters his effort straight into poor Phil Jagielka’s startled grid.

79 min: Rose is replaced by Aaron Cresswell. “Is it too early to declare England officially superb, and in line for guaranteed success in all competitions for the foreseeable future, and beyond?” wonders Charles Antaki, in a tinder-dry email which carries the equally wry heading “England to win all upcoming silverware”.

78 min: Aspas slips a lovely ball down the inside-right channel to release Morata on goal. But the striker’s got over-excited and broken too early. Offside, though Heaton was out quickly to smother anyway. Nothing’s going right for Spain this evening. They replace Busquets with Nolito.

76 min: Rose tears down the left at warp speed, and is scythed down by Carvajal on the byline, just as the England man looks to cut sharply inside and towards the box. A booking. The resulting free kick, which is effectively a corner, leads to a corner, which leads to Rose blootering miles wide right from 20 yards. Ah well, he started it, after all.

74 min: Dier has been quietly effective tonight. Here he slips a pass down the inside-right channel to release Rashford into the area. It’s a bit overcooked, and while the striker does brilliantly to bring the ball under control and round Reina on the right, he can’t quite keep it from going out of play before he can hook it into the centre. A fine move, though.

See Also

England 1-2 Spain: Gareth Southgate's men suffer Wembley defeatEngland 2-2 Spain (Nov 15, 2016) Game Analysis - ESPNEngland vs. Spain: Score and Twitter Reaction for 2016 FriendlyEngland v Spain 2016 lineups

72 min: Clyne combines with Townsend down the right, and finds himself in acres of space in the Spanish area! He doesn’t seem to believe he’s onside, and hesitates, allowing Azpilicueta to nick the ball away. England had men in the middle there.

71 min: A little bit of Spanish pressure earns a corner down the left. From it, there’s a bit of a scuffle in the box, but Aspas can’t dig the ball from under his feet to get an effective shot away. There’s a final phase of attack, Morata cutting in from the left and shooting low from the edge of the box, but it’s straight at Heaton, who does what he has to do and smothers well.

68 min: It’s been some evening for Jamie Vardy, who walks off the pitch ten feet taller. A goal and an assist. He’s back! And he’s off, smiling and high-fiving everyone on the bench, having been replaced by Marcus Rashford.

66 min: Isco is immediately into the action, sliding a pass from deep down the inside-left channel and very nearly releasing Morata into the box. Morata is offside. Aspas responds by gently shoving the linesman in the back, and is rather unsurprisingly booked.

65 min: Another couple of changes by Spain: Silva and Aduriz go off, Isco and Alvaro Morata come on. Meanwhile England replace Sterling with Andros Townsend. All that blethering over the PA has totally jiggered the atmosphere generated by the Mexican Wave.

63 min: So, having said that, Herrera gifts the ball in the middle of the park to Sterling, who slips Lingard away down the inside left. Lingard just about manages to round Reina on the left, but he’s left with too much to do to find Vardy in the centre, and Nacho hacks clear from danger.

62 min: Aspas and Silva one-two their way down the middle and nearly break into the England box, but Jagielka is on hand to step in and batter clear. Spain are getting back into their groove a little.

60 min: Koke has a batter from 20 yards, but it goes straight down Heaton’s throat.

59 min: Rose upends Aspas down the right. Free kick. Koke lumps it in; Stones nuts it purposefully clear. The crowd are entertaining themselves with one of the loudest Mexican waves since the late 1980s. Everyone’s really going for it. People having a good time watching England play? To repeat my question of 17 minutes, I wonder if Roy Hodgson is tuned to ITV?

56 min: A bit of old-school tiki-taka opens England up down the inside right. Silva has a batter towards the bottom right, but Heaton blocks well. The rebound falls to Aspas, who faces an open goal but under pressure from Clyne hoicks over the bar. Spain respond by replacing Thiago with Manchester United’s Ander Herrera.

54 min: Spain are playing very poorly. Passing it around to no great effect whatsoever. They’ve got their classic blue shorts back, though, so it’s swings and roundabouts. “Gary Naylor (42nd minute) is free to be outraged about the amount of roadworks in Lincoln right now,” suggests Phil Sawyer. “Although most of the hold-ups are because Lincoln is an old Roman town so every time the diggers go in they find Roman ruins that need to be carefully excavated. So it’s difficult to be too outraged. Oh, hang on, didn’t Sterling follow a bit of trickery with a pass straight to a Spain player? Perhaps Gary could start #SterlingPassGate. Apart from that, I can’t think of any events in the last week that could provide opportunity for him to vent his outraged spleen.”

51 min: Spain appear to have given up the ghost completely. Already. It should be 3-0. Vardy romps into acres of space down the middle, and slips a ball to his right for Walcott, who is clear in the box. Walcott attempts to thread a shot into the bottom left, but Reina’s not having that, and parries. There’s a second phase from the rebound, and Henderson yanks a decent half-chance wide left from the edge of the box, but it’s Walcott who looks the most frustrated after that little spell.

This is a great goal! Henderson, to the right of the Spanish penalty box, chips to the far post where Vardy launches himself and Houchens a diving header into the left-hand portion of the net. That’s a peach! He celebrates by standing Mannequin still. His goal drought is over.

And we’re off again! A couple of changes by England. Tom Heaton comes on for Joe Hart, while Phil Jagielka replaces Gary Cahill. Meanwhile Spain swap Mata and Vitolo in favour of Koke and Aspas. There’s an immediate burst by Walcott who goes for the bottom right but only forces a corner, from which nothing comes.

Half-time reading: A former England captain said his goodbyes to Los Angeles Galaxy today. Graham Ruthven doesn’t seem all that unhappy to see Steven Gerrard go.

Rose is booked for stepping on Carvajal’s toe. Mata swings a free kick into the England box from the right. Rose makes up by heading clear. And that’s a very decent half from England. Spain haven’t been much cop, but England have been effervescent in attack, with Sterling, Vardy and the injured Lallana all impressive. Gareth Southgate is 45 minutes away from the England job, by the looks of it. “If we can hand out man of the match awards at this early stage,” begins Charles Antaki, “the clear winner, at least on the Spanish side, is Andres Iniesta.”

See Also

England 2 Spain 2: Isco snatches equaliser at the death as Southgate's side throw away two-goal lead

45 min: There will be two added minutes of this first half.

44 min: Carvajal rolls a fine ball down the right to release Vitolo into a pocket of space. He reaches the byline and pulls a low one back for Silva, who has a chance to shoot but miscontrols, and it’s gone. Spain have been mediocre going forward.

42 min: Rose steals the ball brilliantly off a dawdling Vitolo in the centre circle. He lays off to Lingard, who in turn shuttles the ball down the inside left for Vardy. But the chance to release the striker into the area is gone when the pass is undercooked. Fine pressing by Rose, though. “With no poppies and no Rooney and a disappointing early lead too, can you suggest what I should be outraged about please?” asks Gary Naylor. “I don’t want to wait until the phone-ins as I could be tweeting now.”

39 min: Sterling looks on his game generally, though. Once more he races into space down the left, and his low cross nearly finds Vardy in the middle. Nacho slides in to hack out for a corner on the right. From the set piece, Vardy tries to guide one into the top left from 12 yards, but the ball is never quite under control and he scoops it harmlessly wide left. England look very lively in attack.

37 min: Space for Sterling down the left. He whips a low cross towards the quiet Lingard in the centre. Martinez slides in to deflect the ball left of goal, out for a corner. No challenge, and that would have been a simple tap-in. The resulting corner on the left leads to a free kick on the right. Henderson’s dink into the box is only half cleared, but Sterling over-elaborates on the edge of the Spanish area and is dispossessed. He looks relieved as Silva and Vitolo fail to piece a counter-attack together.

35 min: This has been a bright, entertaining match, so it’s been long overdue a lull. Here it is!

32 min: Make that three bookings! Walcott goes into the ref’s notebook for a cynical slide that stops Azpilicueta bursting down the Spanish left. The free kick’s swung into the box and dealt with easily enough by the home defence.

30 min: A couple of bookings, at last! Sterling sees yellow for crumping his boot on top of Aduriz’s foot; he can have no complaints, it wasn’t a good challenge. Then Martinez cyncially brings down Walcott as the England sub looks to zip into a lot of space down the right. He can’t moan either. But it’s nice to see the referee didn’t forget his entire kit and caboodle tonight.

28 min: Aduriz is afforded a little time and space in a central position, 30 yards from goal. He slips a pass along the slight diagonal towards Vitolo, racing down the inside-right channel and into the box. Too heavy; goal kick. Had that been better weighted, England were in all sorts of trouble.

27 min: Clyne fannies around on the halfway line, allowing Silva to steal the ball off him and tear clear down the left wing. Not much wrong with the challenge, but Silva is penalised for pulling the England full-back to the ground. That’s a generous decision.

25 min: Lallana goes down and rolls his socks around his ankles. Penny for his and Liverpool’s thoughts, with a visit back to his old club Southampton scheduled for the weekend. He walks off, limping lightly but not looking super concerned. Though time will obviously tell. Walcott will come on in his stead.

23 min: Thiago takes a heavy touch while faffing around out on the Spanish left. The busy Lallana nips off with the loose ball, and is brought down by the errant Spaniard for his trouble. That should be a booking, really. Like Vardy and Reina before him, Thiago can count himself rather lucky.

20 min: Sterling makes off down the left and wins the first corner of the game. Henderson takes short, then a pass is shuttled back down the field to Rose, whose cross is no good. Within seconds, the ball’s back at the feet of Hart. Not ideal, but England are a work in progress after all.

17 min: Vardy has been right off the boil so far this season, but he looks back to his title-winning best right now. He skates down the left and very nearly executes a sharp one-two with Sterling. Not quite, but he’d have been in a dangerous area had that little caper come off. It’s a nice, bright, expansive start by England, the players running free, scampering like joyous pups in a Christmas ad. I wonder if Roy Hodgson is watching?

15 min: Spain finally put something together. Mata slides a pass down the right for Aduriz, who breaks into the area and pulls the ball back towards the penalty spot for Vitolo. Vitolo has time to take a touch, but having made space drags a woefully weak effort wide left of the target. But that was super-smooth. England were opened up there with some ease.

13 min: Spain look a little rattled. Times change, huh. Vardy looks to break with purpose down the left, but Carvajal sticks to his task. Just for a second, though, the visitors were light at the back.

11 min: And all of a sudden, Spain’s confident passing becomes slightly ragged. Carvajal loses the ball in the middle of the park. Lallana looks to slide Rose clear down the left, but he was standing half a yard offside when he received the ball in the first place. As Lallana is playing with bags of confidence right now. A very different player from the one who struggled in his first year at Anfield.

Lallana is rewarded for that superlative pass with the chance to score from the spot. He takes it, roofing his penalty into the top right. Reina had no chance. England have hardly seen the ball, but look at the scoreline!

8 min: Lallana pinches possession down the right, and curls a gorgeous low pass into the centre. The ball evades the desperate lunge of Martinez, and Vardy’s clear in the box! He looks to round Reina on the right. The keeper brings him down, and is slightly lucky to avoid a card. Nacho covering in the middle saves his skin. But that’s a penalty!

6 min: Spain continue to pass it round quite a lot. Vitolo cuts in from the left and looks for Azpilicueta. Vardy slides in to intercept, and it’s a pretty robust challenge with his studs up. He gets the ball and clears, but he also crumps those studs on Azpilicueta’s shin. That’s a nasty one, but the contact was accidental. Looks like the Spanish full-back will be OK. Vardy gets a quiet talking-to from the referee. The resulting free kick is a waste of time and energy.

3 min: England haven’t really had a touch yet. A lot of tippy tappy at the back. But breaking news! There’s method in this patient tactic. Who’d have thought? Carvajal strides down the right and floats a ball towards the far post for Silva. Hart comes off his line to claim well, because for a second it looked like the ball would land on Silva’s nut, whereupon it would be wheeched into the net with some purpose.

And we’re off! Spain get the ball rolling. Aduriz has the honour, and he knocks it back towards Mata. There’s 20 seconds of tiki-taka at the back, then Martinez launches it long. Too long. Hart gathers. A slightly muted atmosphere at Wembley, incidentally, a result of Spain only bringing 500 fans with them.

The teams are out! England are playing in their classic white shirts with powder blue epaulettes, while Spain sport their furious red. An aesthetic delight. Anthems are blaring, hands will be given a good old shake. We’ll be off in a minute! Meantime, here’s Hubert O’Hearn: “God love him, but Gareth Southgate reminds me of the nice man at the funeral parlour who helps you pick out the hymns.” Ah, the glorious tingle of pre-match excitement! Can’t you just taste it?

Gareth Southgate speaks! And here’s why he hasn’t made an excessive amount of changes from the Scotland game. “I’m looking for stability. If you’re a player coming into the side, it’s good to have some consistency around you; it gives them the best chance of succeeding. We’re also still building how we want to play, so that continuity is important. Marcus Rashford is a player we think a lot of, and his time will come, but tonight I wanted to give Jamie Vardy a run. Adam Lallana’s technical ability with the ball is outstanding, he’s a leader in how we want to press, and he’ll set the tone in that. We have a young team who are keen to press, and are keen to show what they can do with the ball. We won’t have all the possession, but that’s the challenge.”

England: Hart, Clyne, Stones, Cahill, Rose, Dier, Henderson, Sterling, Lallana, Lingard, Vardy.
Subs: Heaton, Walker, Walcott, Sturridge, Jagielka, Townsend, Keane, Wilshere,
Rashford, Bertrand, Cresswell, Pickford.

Spain: Reina, Carvajal, Martinez, Nacho, Azpilicueta, Mata, Busquets, Thiago, Silva, Aduriz, Vitolo.
Subs: de Gea, Sergi Roberto, Bartra, Morata, Koke, Callejon, Ander Herrera, Monreal, Aspas, Nolito, Isco, Sergio Asenjo.

Referee: Ovidiu Alin Hategan (Romania)

Meanwhile here’s the Spanish starting XI: Reina, Carvajal, Martinez, Nacho, Azpilicueta, Mata, Busquets, Thiago, Vitolo, Aduriz, Silva.

David Silva of Manchester City makes it despite struggling with a toe injury. Napoli goalkeeper Jose Reina, once of Liverpool, gets his first start in a couple of years ahead of Manchester United octopus David de Gea. And up front, the veteran Aritz Aduriz replaces Alvaro Morata. The selection of Aduriz is a lovely little story, and it’s one told here by our very own Sid Lowe:

It completes an astonishing 10-day period for the Athletic Bilbao striker. He became the first Spaniard to score five goals in a game for half a century in Athletic’s 5-3 win over Genk on the same night that he became a father for the second time. He then came on as a substitute and scored for Spain against Macedonia – aged 35 years 275 days. That saw him break José María Peña’s Spanish record, which had stood since 1930.
It was only Aduriz’s second goal for his country, having gone almost six years without a call-up between his first cap in October 2010 and his return in February 2016, after his goalscoring record improved following his 30th birthday. Although he went to Euro 2016, Aduriz did not make Lopetegui’s first squad but was called up for these two fixtures. The Spain manager called him an “example”.

Here’s tonight’s England starting XI: Hart, Clyne, Rose, Cahill, Stones, Dier, Sterling, Henderson, Lingard, Lallana, Vardy.

So Gareth Southgate makes three changes to the side that saw off that shower masquerading as Scotland. Jamie Vardy, Nathaniel Clyne and Jesse Lingard are welcomed to the team, replacing Daniel Sturridge, Kyle Walker and The Grove’s Wayne Rooney respectively.

Yes, we’ve got here far too early, haven’t we. Nothing much to do, other than read the match programme. Here, FA chairman Greg Clarke’s written a piece for it! Yes, I know, you should have stayed for another pint, there was plenty of time. But we’re here now. So here’s it.

While the result is always important, tonight might also be an opportunity for one or two players to stake a claim at international level.
Certainly, no one knows the nation’s young talent better than Gareth Southgate after a year to remember at development team level.

Actually, there’s still over an hour until kick-off. Plenty of time to nip back out for another quick swallow. Go on. I’ll finish this off, and I’ll still be here when you get back.

We began our senior action for the year with a game in Germany last March and that thrilling 3-2 victory against the reigning world champions was cause for plenty of justified optimism.
We will continue to seek to measure ourselves against the leading nations, as we also did here a year ago this month when we came out 2-0 winners over France on an emotional night.
Of course, those results fuelled optimism for Euro 2016 and we will always look back on the past 12 months with a sense of what might have been.
I was there in France as a fan and, like everyone, was disappointed with how the tournament went, given our qualification record and the talent we undoubtedly possess.
It is definitely a case of looking forward now and we will sit down after this fixture to consider our options with regard to the England manager position, and with full gratitude to Gareth and his staff for their work.

Friendlies might not get the juices flowing quite like a good old competitive fixture, but they have their time and place. Like whenever England meet Spain, for example. These two rarely pull up trees when it means something. Spain eased England out of the 1950 World Cup in uneventful fashion; England did for Spain in the Euros in 1968, 1980 and 1996, but you wouldn’t have written home on any occasion; and the pair bored the world to tears at España 82. More, please? No thanks! Thanks, but no thank you!

Friendly fixtures between the two are another matter, however. In 1929, Spain scored a couple of late goals to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 victory, the amateur Severino Goiburu condemning England to their first-ever defeat by continental opposition. Two years later, England got their revenge in spectacular style, Dixie Dean one of the scorers in a 7-1 win at Highbury. Tom Finney missed a penalty at Wembley in 1955 but Matthews Final hero Bill Perry scored twice and England won 4-1 anyway. Jimmy Greaves was on the scoresheet in 1960 as England won 4-2 against a team containing Luis del Sol, Francisco Gento, the original Luis Suarez and Alfredo Di Stéfano for goodness sake. Gary Lineker scored four on his own against a Spain side built around the in-form Emilio Butragueño in 1987. Ugo Ehiogu scored in a 3-0 romp for new England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson in 2001. And Spain have won four of the five meetings since then, more often than not giving the English the right old runaround.

Happily on board for anything like any of that? Yes, us too. Here we go, then! Kick-off is at 8pm GMT, 9pm CET over in Spain. It’s on!