Spain 2-0 England – Reality check for Capello’s new England

England went to Seville last night to take on the might of the European Champions Spain.

Fabio Capello went into the game without the injured Steve Gerrard and Wayne Rooney and Spain had to take to the field without Carles Puyol who suffered a thigh injury at the weekend. Other than that, both managers had a pretty full squad to choose from for what was billed as a friendly, but meant a lot more than that to both countries.

Confidence

Confidence in Spain was sky high after their glorious victory at Euro 2008 and confidence in England was pretty high as well after an unbeaten start to their World Cup qualifying campaign and an excellent win in Germany.

So, who’s confidence was justified and who’s was misplaced?

Well, the answer to that is pretty emphatic. Spain were right to be confident and England probably weren’t.

The game started brightly for England and an early chance fell to Gabby Agbonlahor who fired wide. Gareth Barry headed a corner past the post and Emile Heskey fell over when clean through after being touched. It wouldn’t have mattered as he was wrongly ruled to be offside, but why didn’t he stay on his feet?

Delight

After that, Spain started to play and there really was only one team in it. The European Champions’ passing and movement was quite simply too much for the England team to deal with. Xavi and Iniesta were a delight to watch with their clever passing and sadly for England, watch them was all that Michael Carrick and Gareth Barry could do!

The in form Everton centre-half Phil Jagielka had fully justified his selection in the first thirty-five minutes but then played one very sloppy pass out from the back that seized upon by Xabi Alonso who played in David Villa. The Valencia (for now!) striker easily held off the weak challenges of Jagielka and Terry and expertly slid the ball past David James.

Cruising

From there on in, England never really looked like getting back into the game. It felt to me that England were working hard and chasing the ball and playing at full throttle whereas Spain seemed to be cruising comfortably in second gear. It always looked as though if by accident, England had managed to find an equaliser, Spain could and would have stepped up the pace and re-taken the lead.

With a number of substitutions at half time we saw David Beckham come on for his record equalling 108th cap. I’m glad that he has achieved that record but can’t help but feel both sad and worried that England were undoubtedly at their best in the game when Becks had the ball.

Twice

Twice Beckham created decent chances for England. He fired a trademark crossfield ball to Shaun Wright-Phillips who cut inside and hit a weak shot straight at Pepe Reine and then he burst through the midfield and played in Carlton Cole who took the ball around Reine but had his shot cleared off the line.

Despite those two rare moments of inspiration by the visitors, Spain continued to look comfortable and played well within themselves. It took them until the eighty-second minute to get the second goal that their football and superiority deserved. When the goal came, it was a very simple affair. A free-kick delivered into the box by the excellent Xavi and the inexplicably unmarked Fernando Llorente thundered home a header past the helpless Robert Green.

Concern

As an England fan, did the game raise any concern? Well, yes it did really.

It confirmed that we are a long way behind the Spanish. It confirmed that David Beckham is still one of our best players. It confirmed that John Terry is really struggling for form. It confirmed that we have no goalscorers. It confirmed that Stewart Downing and Shaun Wright-Phillips are not the answer to England’s left hand side, yet still Ashley Young doesn’t get a chance. It confirmed, sadly, that we are probably no nearer to winning anything than we were under Sven Goran-Eriksson. (We are much closer than under Steve MaClaren!)

Dismayed

I’m not dismayed by the game last night because it was nothing that we didn’t already know. Obviously we are a better side with Ferdinand, Gerrard and Rooney on the pitch, but we’re still nowhere near as good as Spain.

There is no doubt that England are going in the right direction under Capello but there is also no doubt that they have a long way to travel.