MADRID, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- World champion Spain maintained its 100 percent start to the UEFA Nations League on Saturday night thanks to a 3-1 win over the Czech Republic in Oviedo.
Spain coach Luis de la Fuente made nine changes from the team that won 4-1 at home to Croatia on Tuesday, with Ivan Fresneda and Roberto Fernandez both making their debuts, while Fran Garcia, Robin le Normand and Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya also returned to the team.
Despite the changes, the win was only in doubt for a handful of minutes from the moment Lamine Yamal opened the scoring in the fifth minute with a trademark curling shot into the corner of the Czech goal.
A flowing move minutes later almost saw Rodrigo Hernandez double Spain's lead, but with the Spaniards dominating the ball and playing almost entirely in the Czech half a second goal never looked far away.
Visiting goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky did well to deny Pedri after another swift Spain attack in the 32nd minute, but was helpless when the ball fell kindly for Rodrigo to net the second three minutes later.
Yamal saw another effort go across the face of goal before the break as Spain dominated and with the game seemingly under control De la Fuente took the opportunity to replace the Barcelona winger and Alex Baena with Victor Munoz and Yeremy Pino for the second half.
The changes saw Spain lose some midfield control, perhaps because Munoz and Pino stayed tight on the wings rather than moving inside as Baena and Yamal do. Just after Pino saw a shot drift just wide of the post with Fernandez inches away from a finish, the Czechs got back into things when Jiri Slama drilled a low shot across Raya to make it 2-1.
Raya got away with a bad mistake with just over 10 minutes left when he dropped a simple ball and Ryan Naderi fired into the Spain net only for the 'goal' to be ruled out for a prior foul on Le Normand.
Ladislav Krejci was sent off in the 85th minute and Mikel Merino made Spain's win safe in the last minute when he latched onto a loose ball following a swift break. ■
