UEFA Nations League: 3 reasons why England beat Spain

Pundits and club managers alike have questioned the concept of the UEFA Nations League, but tonight’s game between England and Spain in Seville should go a long way to keeping those dissenters quiet.

Gareth Southgate’s young Three Lions side came away with a huge victory in the end, racing into a three-goal lead at half time, and while Spain came back with a vengeance in the second half, it wasn’t enough as the match finished 2-3 in England’s favour – with Spain’s final goal from Sergio Ramos coming literally with the last kick (header!) of the game.

It was a remarkable win for England – the first time Spain have been beaten at home in 38 games – and their overall performance was a massive credit to Southgate, who made some tactical changes for the previous game away in Croatia and stuck with them.

Here are 3 reasons why England defeated Spain.

#1 England’s forwards finally found their scoring boots

Raheem Sterling finally found his scoring boots after 3 goalless years for England

Much has been spoken recently about the profligacy of England’s forwards, namely the Manchester-based duo of Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford. Before tonight, Sterling had gone over three years without a goal for England, and while Rashford had scored twice in the previous international break, he missed two gilt-edged chances against Croatia on Friday.

Add in the fact that talismanic captain Harry Kane hadn’t scored an England goal since the World Cup’s Round of 16, and it seemed fair to have some worries about where the Three Lions would find some goals.

Those fears were quickly proven wrong tonight though. With just 16 minutes gone, a quick break found Rashford, who played a perfectly weighted ball across to Sterling, and without a second thought, the Man City star lashed the ball across David de Gea and into the net. It was as if he’d been scoring goals like that for years.

13 minutes later it was Kane who turned provider, as he ended another quick break with a beautiful ball to Rashford – who confidently took one touch to control it before slotting past de Gea for a second goal.

By the time Ross Barkley chipped a wonderful ball over the top to Kane, who crossed to Sterling for a simple tap-in, England were in dreamland – three goals in front against a favoured Spanish side.

While the credit has to go to Sterling and Rashford for finding such advantageous positions, a lot must go to Gareth Southgate, too. Many managers would’ve dropped Sterling a long time ago after missing so many chances in recent times, while many others would’ve removed Rashford after his performance on Friday.

Southgate though kept faith with his two youngsters – and wouldn’t you just know it, it paid off in spades. England had just three attempts on target tonight, and all three of them went in.

#2 Southgate’s midfield changes worked brilliantly

Eric Dier had a great game as part of England's midfield trio

To look at the statistics – 73% possession for Spain and 20 shots on goal for the home side compared to 5 for England – and you’d think this was a simple smash-and-grab job from the Three Lions. To an extent that was the case, but that’d also be doing England’s midfield trio – Harry Winks, Eric Dier and Ross Barkley – a massive disservice.

All three of them were outstanding tonight; Dier’s positioning in front of the defence allowed him to consistently close down Spain’s Sergio Busquets – the man who usually makes Spain tick – and the Barcelona man was unable to control the game in the same way he did in September’s match between the two.

Winks played some smart, quick passes throughout the game and more importantly, didn’t give the ball away on many occasions – again, not allowing Spain the midfield domination they had at Wembley. And finally, while Barkley disappointed in Friday’s game with Croatia, he was tremendous here – winning and retaining the ball, and his chipped pass to set up England’s third goal was phenomenal.

After the Croatia game Gareth Southgate suggested that he’d switched from his World Cup 3-3-2-2 formation to a 4-3-3 to strengthen England defensively, particularly to stop the midfield from being over-run as it had been against Croatia in the World Cup and against Spain in September.

That was largely successful against Croatia, as they were limited to few chances, but it was much more evident tonight – England didn’t win the midfield battle per say but at no point did they appear to be outclassed as they were a month ago. And that’s down to Southgate’s underrated tactical nous – as well as three great performances from Dier, Winks and Barkley.

#3 England had the rub of the green

Jordan Pickford survived a hairy moment when he almost conceded a second half penalty

For as well as England played tonight, when the stats show such domination from Spain in terms of possession and shots on goal, there’s always going to be an element of luck involved to cement a win like this.

In September’s game between the two sides it felt like every decision went in Spain’s favour – most notably the referee’s inexplicable decision to disallow a last-gasp equaliser from Danny Welbeck when he clearly didn’t foul David de Gea. Tonight though, that element of luck appeared to swing the other way.

Spain could’ve scored early on when a wild goalmouth scramble hit Jordan Pickford when the keeper was unaware, and in the second half, they just couldn’t seem to get the killer ball right in order to provide a clear-cut chance.

Of course, Spanish fans would argue they should’ve had a penalty during the second half when an attempted Cruyff turn from Pickford went awry. It did appear that the Everton goalkeeper may have fouled Rodrigo following his mistake – it was one of those decisions that could’ve gone either way – but thankfully for England fans, the referee saw it as a clean tackle.

While it can’t be argued that Spain’s forwards were wasteful – Paco Alacer took his lone chance brilliantly as did Sergio Ramos – on other nights things would’ve gone differently for them and they could’ve scored the 4 goals they needed to beat England. But they didn’t – and that’s the breaks in football sometimes.