Spain exploit England mistakes to win Nations League thriller at Wembley

Spain claimed a 3-2 victory over England at Wembley on Saturday after taking advantage of two costly defensive errors in a thrilling opening-round Nations League match.

The world champions, unbeaten in 39 games, struck twice through mistakes by the hosts before Mikel Oyarzabal settled the contest in the 74th minute. The result came less than 10 weeks after Spain lifted the World Cup.

England fell behind in only the second minute when Marc Guehi was dispossessed deep in his own half, allowing teenage forward Lamine Yamal to score.

The hosts recovered impressively, equalising through Anthony Gordon in the 36th minute before captain Harry Kane completed a remarkable four-minute turnaround by heading England in front.

Spain levelled shortly after the hour mark when Nico O’Reilly’s misplaced pass returned possession to the visitors. Alex Baena took advantage to make it 2-2.

Oyarzabal, who scored the winning goal against England in the 2024 European Championship final, then produced another decisive moment against the same opponents. He lifted a clever finish over goalkeeper James Trafford to restore Spain’s lead.

“There are many matches within a match, and we’ve known how to play them all at every moment,” Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said.

“England has a lot of talent to hurt at any moment, but we’ve controlled the game.”

Spain’s victory ended England’s hopes of completing a memorable comeback and gaining some consolation for their painful World Cup semi-final defeat by Argentina.

Kane had the opportunity to equalise from the penalty spot in the second half, but his left foot slipped as he planted it and his effort struck the inside of the crossbar.

Despite the defeat, the England captain felt his side had matched their opponents.

“We’re playing against the world champions, the European champions, and we went toe-to-toe,” Kane told ITV.

“On another day for sure we’d have won that game.”

England manager Thomas Tuchel was critical of his side’s start but praised their response after falling behind.

“Terrible start, the worst start possible,” he said. “Makes it so, so difficult to be behind against this kind of team. The reaction was very good, very good.

“The third goal was the only one they really scored the others were from individual, big mistakes.”

In the other Group A3 fixture on Saturday, Croatia began life under new manager Slaven Bilic with a 2-1 victory over the Czech Republic. Captain Luka Modric again made a significant contribution before Marco Pasalic scored the decisive goal.