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Oyarzabal and Spain sink England again as Modric shines for Croatia / Photo: © AFP
Oyarzabal and Spain sink England again as Modric shines for Croatia
Mikel Oyarzabal gave world champions Spain a 3-2 victory over error-prone England in the Nations League on Saturday as Luka Modric helped Croatia beat the Czech Republic 2-1.
Oyarzabal struck 16 minutes from time in an entertaining back-and-forth contest in which England captain Harry Kane missed a penalty.
Victory at Wembley in Nations League A, Group 3 extended Spain's unbeaten run to 39 matches and prolonged England's difficulties against the world's top teams.
Oyarzabal was also the match-winner two years ago when Spain beat England in the European Championship final.
Lamine Yamal gave Spain the lead inside two minutes after a horror error from Marc Guehi, who played a blind pass which the Barcelona forward intercepted before shooting into the corner.
Spain largely controlled the first period in a game of contrasting styles but England turned things around just before half-time.
Jude Bellingham teed up Anthony Gordon to finish crisply beyond Unai Simon.
And then Harry Kane headed home a Nico O'Reilly chip five minutes before the interval.
Kane had a chance to put daylight between the hosts and the world champions 10 minutes into the second period after Rodri was harshly judged to have brought down Bellingham in the box after a VAR review.
But Kane slipped as he went to take the penalty and crashed his strike against the bar.
England were made to pay after another defensive howler as O'Reilly gave the ball away and Dani Olmo teed up Alex Baena to finish brilliantly.
And Mikel Oyarzabal compounded England's misery by dinking the ball over James Trafford after combining with Baena 16 minutes from time.
Croatia captain Modric showed no signs of slowing down even at 41 as he gave Croatia the lead in Prague just after half-time.
Adam Karabec equalised seven minutes later for the hosts but Croatia substitute Mario Pasalic netted the winner 13 minutes for time for the visitors.
Remo Freuler and a Zeki Amdouni brace gave Switzerland a 3-0 win in North Macedonia to top Nations League B, Group 1 as Slovenia and Scotland drew 0-0 in the other match.
In Nations League C, captain Joel Pohjanpalo scored a hat-trick as Finland crushed San Marino, whose captain Alessandro Golinucci was sent off, 7-0 in Serravalle.
In other League C matches Albania beat Belarus 2-0, Slovakia defeated Moldova by the same score and Luxembourg won 2-1 away to Bulgaria.
P.Adams--SFF
