A sublime goal from Barcelona’s Andres Iniesta settled an encounter that was anything but in Spain’s favour as another insipid England performance added to the pressure on their manager, Steve McClaren.
Spain were far from at their fluent best for England’s last home international before they take up residency at the new Wembley.
But it was their substitute Iniesta who produced the moment of quality required to deliver a 1-0 victory for his side, the midfielder’s superb long-range strike leaving debutant goalkeeper Ben Foster with no chance just after the hour mark.
Friendly it might have been, but neither McClaren nor his Spanish counterpart Luis Aragones could afford to regard the outcome as an irrelevance given the problems both countries have encountered in their Euro 2008 qualifying campaigns.
Spain are currently languishing in fifth place in group F, while England trail Croatia and Russia in group E with a testing trip to Israel looming at the end of March.
In the absence of the injured Wayne Rooney, England were relying on the pace and trickery of Shaun Wright-Phillips and Kieron Dyer, operating either side of Peter Crouch, to unlock Spain’s defence.
The approach almost paid off inside a minute as Wright-Phillips played Dyer in behind a flat-footed defence to deliver a cross that Carlos Puyol cut out at full stretch.
Apparently shaken by that scare, the Spanish back four proceeded to make a hash of defending the resulting corner and Dyer should have put England ahead in the third minute when Iker Casillas failed to hold Michael Carrick’s shot, instead striking the rebound against the legs of the Real Madrid goalkeeper.
The promising start was not sustained however. Wright-Phillips continued to see plenty of the ball on the right flank but the Chelsea player’s lack of regular starts for his club was reflected in another error-strewn display in an England shirt and gradually Spain began to find their rhythm.
Skipping past Phil Neville with some comfort, Valencia striker David Villa demonstrated why he is so coveted by Chelsea by cracking a fierce drive into the side netting.
Spain’s best chance of the opening period also originated from the area Phil Neville was supposed to be policing, Miguel Angel Angulo threading a pass into the area for Fernando Morientes.
The former Liverpool striker has been in good form for Valencia this season but there was a reminder of his unhappy time in England as he skied his shot high into the Stretford End.
The profligacy was mirrored at the other end by Crouch, who might have made more of a Phil Neville cross he headed wide in the 25th minute and should at least have hit the target when Steven Gerrard’s exquisite outside-of-the-boot ball picked him out in the area six minutes before the interval. The Liverpool forward had time to bring the ball down but his shot was shanked tamely across the face of the goal.
Half-time saw the ineffective Morientes make way for Fernando Torres, whose first act was to send over a teasing cross that Ben Foster misjudged and Villa will have been frustrated not to have reached just beyond the back post.
England’s response came from the unlikely source of Gary Neville, an overlap and driven cross unsettling Casillas shortly before he latched on to Dyer’s lay-off to send a shot narrowly over the bar.
Foster was finally able to mark his international debut with a solid save just before the hour mark, falling to his right to touch away another pile driver from Villa.
There was nothing, however, he could do to prevent Spain taking the lead after a Villa cross from the left found its way to Iniesta in the inside-right channel, just outside the box.
From there, the Barcelona midfielder’s shot, struck with admirable purity with just a touch of spin off the outside of the boot, found the opposite top corner of the net. — Sapa-AFP