Spain leave it late to beat Saudis

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http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/10/05/29/SOCCER_Friendlies_Review.html&TEAMHD=soccer


SPAIN LEAVE IT LATE TO BEAT SAUDIS

http://worldcup.sportinglife.com/video/0,27131,17462,00.html Substitute Fernando Llorente rescued Spain with an injury-time winner as they edged past Saudi Arabia 3-2 in their World Cup warm-up match at Innsbruck.
Osama Hawsawi gave Saudi Arabia a shock lead and although David Villa and Xabi Alonso scored to turn things around, Mohammed Al-Sahlawi's 74th-minute goal appeared to have denied the European champions.
However, Athletic Bilbao striker Llorente netted a minute into time added on to save the blushes of Vicente Del Bosque and his team - tipped by many to challenge strongly for glory in South Africa.


A brace from substitute Martin Olsson helped Sweden down Bosnia-Herzegovina 4-2 in Saturday's friendly in Gothenburg.
Ola Toivonen's first international goal put Sweden ahead a minute before the break and Blackburn midfielder Olsson struck twice after the break to restore and extend the advantage after Sejad Salihovic's 47th-minute equaliser.
Ermin Zec pulled one back in the 90th minute, only for Marcus Berg to restore his side's two-goal cushion in stoppage time.


Sweden's Scandinavian rivals Norway, who also failed to qualify for the World Cup, also enjoyed a victory - a last-gasp own goal by Montenegro defender Zarko Tomasevic ensuring a 2-1 home win in Oslo.
Roma striker Mirko Vucinic looked to have secured a draw for the visitors when he netted nine minutes from time to cancel out Christian Grindheim's opener, but Tomasevic headed past his own goalkeeper in the 89th minute from Morten Gamst Pedersen's free-kick to condemn his side to defeat.


West Brom defender Gabriel Tamas scored at each end - the latter proving decisive - as his Romania side went down 3-2 to Ukraine at Kiev's Olympic Stadium.
Goals early in the second half from Tamas and Daniel Niculae looked to have put the visitors on course for victory, overturning Oleksandr Aliev 15th-minute opener.
But Evgeni Konoplienka levelled 16 minutes from time and then Tamas put through his own net in the 89th minute to hand Ukraine the win.


Elsewhere, Heidar Helguson was on target twice as Iceland thumped Andorra 4-0, Faisal Khalil's goal a minute from time secured a 3-0 win for United Arab Emirates over Moldova in Austria, Poland and Finland played out a goalless draw in Warsaw and Macedonia were 3-1 winners in Azerbaijan.
 
I Like Saudi Arabia as a country but never saw them coming to a close defeat by Spain good on them. Plan to go there one day. Back onto Spain how can they not take this math seriously? Didn't the Arabs make it to the last World Cup?
 
lets hope spain carry on playing like this in the world cup
 
It was only a friendly, they really couldn't of given a ****, they'll be much better come 13 days, so calm down everyone
 
Ride The Walrus said:
It was only a friendly, they really couldn't of given a ****, they'll be much better come 13 days, so calm down everyone
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too true. a lot of people read too much into friendlies. a lot of teams, including england, will step it up when it matters
 
PCastro said:
don't worry about portugal, this year we are really poor. Will be a good WC if we pass the group stage
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Dont be a downer man always believe in your team if Nani and Ronaldo can form that important bond and feed in *** then you have a good combination. I dont know who the striker is so *** it is. Come on how can that much talent go to waste... oh just look at england
 
At least Spain won... Portugal managed to hold the world class, free scoring nation of Cape Verde to a 0-0 draw!
 
Although i agree with those above who say friendlies aren't especially important in terms of performance, there seems to have been a lot of almost slip ups by big teams against lesser ones, complacency becoming an issue? Also - its never good for squad morale when you get beat or at least struggle against such poor teams - admittedly though - they did win and will of course step it up a notch in time for the WC, they beat France didn't they?
 
Sismael said:
Dont be a downer man always believe in your team if Nani and Ronaldo can form that important bond and feed in *** then you have a good combination. I dont know who the striker is so *** it is. Come on how can that much talent go to waste... oh just look at england
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I want to believe that, and I will support Portugal until the end, but the truth is that this year I don't know what's happening but we aren't being capable of scoring... And Ronaldo? I'd like him to play for Portugal as he plays for R Madrid, but that doesn't happen since Scolari left and we chose Queiroz to guide us. He managed to take all the hope from the portuguese people. While Scolari was here, everyone had faith, doesn't matter the results. But now and with him, the only who believe Portugal will go far are the players and himself, but only because they have to say that... Trust me, I want to believe that we will go far, and I would be the 1st defending our team, but with Queiroz at the bench I just can't say that we have any chance. But his abilities are admirable. He managed to take all the faith and hope we have...
 
At least you'll always be able to win a penalty shootout vs england :p - i don't know much about Queiroz - but i thought fergie rated him pretty highly :S
 
joss said:
At least you'll always be able to win a penalty shootout vs england :p - i don't know much about Queiroz - but i thought fergie rated him pretty highly :S
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yeah, he one of the best assistant managers in the world, and bets a lot in young prospects, what is good, but not when he puts that in his calls. He called 3 players that nobody understood why, and he said they were called because "they have future and will be really good". wtf? the world cup is in two weeks and he is calling players who he says to be good in 4 years? What kind of coach is that?
 
Quieroz is the man who said Pique wasn't good enough to make it at United. Then went on to call himself Sir Alex's "Tactical Genius"
 
again the same as england, just nerves settling in.
 
CJACKO11 said:
again the same as england, just nerves settling in.
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which is why im anoyed we hadnt chosen our final 23 after mexico. i can see where capello was going but it would been nicer to play our last game with our strongest team, get a confident win and get a good head of steam going into the USA game.
 
themadsheep2001 said:
which is why im anoyed we hadnt chosen our final 23 after mexico. i can see where capello was going but it would been nicer to play our last game with our strongest team, get a confident win and get a good head of steam going into the USA game.
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i agree, i just think capello wasent sure of who to take and he should be much earlier. i hope this wont work as a negative thats all im saying.
 
CJACKO11 said:
i agree, i just think capello wasent sure of who to take and he should be much earlier. i hope this wont work as a negative thats all im saying.
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it shouldnt be as longs as the likes of terry, rio, rooney, gerrard stand up and be counted in the opening moments of the of the first game, galvanise the players. start quickly, fire up the supporters, which will fire up the players even more
 
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