Villa draws Del Bosque praise

Spain coach Vicente del Bosque hailed striker David Villa, whose brace lifted his side to a 2-1 Euro 2012 qualifying win over the Czech Republic.

In the process, Barcelona’s Villa became Spain’s highest ever goal scorer, after entering Friday’s match level with Raul on 44 international goals.Jaroslav Plasil put the Czechs ahead after 29 minutes, and for a while it looked as though the 1996 European Championships runners-up would hold on to pull off the shock.But Villa’s cool finish from the edge of the box on 69 minutes levelled proceedings and he stepped up to convert a penalty four minutes later to hand his side three points – pushing them six points clear of the Czechs in Group I.”Villa is a boy with a lot of poise in front of goal,” Del Bosque said.”Their goal set us back a great deal.””It cost us some effort to react but we had enough personality to turn the game around.””Twelve points from four matches is the ideal position but we have to keep it up.”Czech Republic coach Michal Bilek was disappointed his side came away from the clash without a point after working so hard.”Obviously the Spanish dominated the game and played with a lot of patience and in the end got the goals they needed,” he said.”During the match we did not see much of the ball and our stamina was falling away at the end.””It’s a shame we couldn’t get the draw.”Spain head to Kaunas to take on Lithuania on Tuesday, while the Czech Republic play host to Liechtenstein.