Seville – Spain secured automatic qualification for the 2026 World Cup, topping Group E despite being held to a 2-2 draw by Turkey in a competitive match in Seville.
Luis de la Fuente’s side finished their qualifying campaign with an unbeaten record, having won and kept a clean sheet in five of their six matches, but conceded their first goals of the entire campaign on Tuesday night.
Match Highlights
- Early Lead: La Roja appeared set to maintain their flawless record when Dani Olmo squeezed the ball home from a Marc Cucurella cut-back after just four minutes, scoring his 12th international goal on his first start since March.
- Turkey Fights Back: Turkey, however, ended Spain’s defensive solidity just three minutes before the break when Deniz Gul guided the ball past Spanish goalkeeper Unai Simon to equalise.
- Ahead of Spain: Turkey then took a shock lead nine minutes into the second half when Salih Ozcan powered a neat effort into the bottom left corner, putting Spain’s 30-match unbeaten run in competitive internationals under serious threat.
- Parity Restored: The Spanish side quickly responded through in-form forward Mikel Oyarzabal, who scored his sixth goal of the qualifying campaign eight minutes later. Oyarzabal pounced on the rebound after a Yeremy Pino effort was cleared off the line, restoring parity at 2-2.
Turkey, who needed an improbable seven-goal margin of victory to deny Spain top spot, settled for second place in the group and will now enter the play-offs.
The result means that only England will complete the European World Cup qualifiers having not conceded a single goal.
Add Comment