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Attendance: 19,773
Spain national football team
Euro Champ Qualifying | Group Stage
Nov 15, 2019 at 7.45pm UK
 
Malta national football team

7-0

Morata (23'), Cazorla (41'), Torres (62'), Sarabia (63'), Olmo (69'), Moreno (71'), Navas (85')
FT(HT: 2-0)

Robert Moreno talks up "incalculable" impact of senior players

Robert Moreno talks up
© Reuters
Spain swept aside Malta to secure top spot in their group.

Spain coach Robert Moreno paid tribute to the old guard, and in particular Santi Cazorla, after the midfielder scored his first international goal in four years in the 7-0 demolition of Malta.

The 34-year-old former Arsenal midfielder, who has revitalised both his club and international career back at Villarreal after horrific Achilles problems, scored the hosts' second before they moved through the gears in the second half.

Spain had already sealed qualification for Euro 2020, but this victory, their seventh from nine qualifiers, confirmed top spot in Group F.

"The contribution of people like Santi (Cazorla), Sergio (Ramos) and Raul (Albiol) – the generation who have already won tournaments – is incalculable," Moreno said on uefa.com.

"They have such quality and it's hard to win tournaments without their kind of experience. They've accumulated things that they not only contribute in performance but transmit to others."

On Cazorla, who won the European Championships with Spain in 2008 and 2012, he added: "What Santi's achieving, his form, after what he went through for nearly three years with his terrible injury problems, is exceptional. Without guys like him and Raul and Sergio it's hard to win tournament semi-finals and finals."

Moreno also praised his side for not easing up in the second half, which saw four goals in the space of 10 minutes from Pau Torres, Pablo Sarabia, Dani Olmo and Gerard Moreno before Jesus Navas completed the rout.

"The easiest thing in the world would have been for my players to accept 3-0 or 4-0 and drop their level," the Spain boss said. "But we hit seven and could easily have scored 10 – that says very good things about their mentality."

The manager was delighted to see Torres and Olmo mark their debuts with goals after coming off the bench.

"We think it's pretty historic that both Pau and Dani both came on and scored with their first touch," he said. "It's been decades since two subs came on and scored on their debuts."

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Group A

TeamPWDLPTS
1 Cyprus Cyprus00000
2 Georgia Georgia00000
3 Norway Norway00000
Q Scotland flag Scotland00000
Q Spain Spain00000

Group B

TeamPWDLPTS
Q France France00000
2 Gibraltar flag Gibraltar00000
3 Greece Greece00000
Q Netherlands Netherlands00000
5 Ireland Rep. Ireland00000

Group C

TeamPWDLPTS
Q England flag England00000
Q Italy Italy00000
3 Malta flag Malta00000
4 Macedonia N. Macedonia00000
5 Ukraine Ukraine00000

Group D

TeamPWDLPTS
1 Armenia Armenia00000
Q Croatia Croatia00000
3 Latvia Latvia00000
Q Turkey Turkey00000
5 Wales flag Wales00000

Group E

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Albania national flag Albania00000
Q Czech Republic Czech Republic00000
3 Faroe Islands Faroe Islands00000
4 Republic of Moldova Moldova00000
5 Poland Poland00000

Group F

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Austria Austria00000
2 Azerbaijan Azerbaijan00000
Q Belgium Belgium00000
4 Estonia Estonia00000
5 Sweden Sweden00000

Group G

TeamPWDLPTS
1 Bulgaria Bulgaria00000
Q Hungary Hungary00000
3 Lithuania Lithuania00000
4 Montenegro Montenegro00000
Q Serbia Serbia00000

Group H

TeamPWDLPTS
Q Denmark Denmark00000
2 Finland Finland00000
3 Kazakhstan Kazakhstan00000
4 Northern Ireland flag N. Ireland00000
5 San Marino flag San Marino00000
Q Slovenia Slovenia00000

Group I

TeamPWDLPTS
1 Andorra flag Andorra00000
2 Belarus Belarus00000
3 Israel Israel00000
4 Kosovo flag Kosovo00000
Q Romania Romania00000
Q Switzerland Switzerland00000

Group J

TeamPWDLPTS
1 Bosnia Bosnia H'vina00000
2 Iceland Iceland00000
3 Liechtenstein flag Liechtenstein00000
4 Luxembourg flag Luxembourg00000
Q Portugal Portugal00000
Q Slovakia Slovakia00000


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