Spain’s under 21 side have booked their flights to the Euros after beating Slovakia away from home, as Luis de la Fuente pursues another success in the tournament.
Spain have an excellent record in the 21st century in international youth tournaments and in this particular age group, have won three of the last six tournaments (2011, 2013, 2019). De la Fuente will feel his side has an excellent opportunity to add to their honours with another talented generation at his disposal.
Perhaps the leader of that generation, Bryan Gil, opened the scoring after just four minutes in Zilina. The on-loan Tottenham winger converted a Juan Miranda pull-back to open the scoring. Slovakia hit back with a controversial penalty before half-time to level things up.
Barcelona midfielder Nico Gonzalez was making his debut for the under 21s but was withdrawn at half-time, as de la Fuente attempted to shake things up with Benat Turrientes of Real Sociedad.
That was without success until the 66th minute, when Sergio Gomez scored a free-kick to put the result back in La Roja’s favour. With just under ten minutes to go, another debutant and another La Real midfielder Robert Navarro came on to seal the result. That was despite a stoppage time goal from the hosts.
The result means that Spain will qualify directly for the tournament in Georgia and Romania rather than having to go through a play-off.
