Deadly Villa puts Russia to the sword

Group D
Spain 4

* Villa 20,
* Villa 44,
* Villa 75,
* Fabregas 90

Russia 1

* Pavlyuchenko 86

* Staff and agencies
* guardian.co.uk,
* Tuesday June 10, 2008

David Villa struck a hat-trick as Spain got their Euro 2008 challenge off to a flying start against Russia.

Villa scored twice in the first half before netting his third 15 minutes from time, earning himself an early front-runner for the tournament's leading scorer.

Roman Pavluchenko pulled a late goal back for Russia, but there was still time for Spain to net a fourth through Cesc Fabregas to wrap up a deserved win.

Spain, who extended their unbeaten run to 17 matches with the win, will be wary about reading too much into this result, though. At Euro 2004 they also beat Russia in their opening match only for both sides to fail to make it through to the quarter-finals.

Spain took the lead with a goal from nothing. Fernando Torres picked up possession after a Russian move had broken down and got a lucky break of the ball against marker Denis Kolodin, before he unselfishly passed inside to Villa to slot into an empty net after Igor Akinfeev had rushed out of his goal.

That was a blow for the Russians, who had not scored against Spain in their three previous meetings, but Guus Hiddink's men came within inches of an immediate riposte in the 22nd minute when Konstatin Zyryanov hit the woodwork.

It was still Spain who were running the match and Akinfeev was proving much the busier of the goalkeepers and he was called into action to palm away shots from Torres and Villa.

He could do nothing to prevent Villa making it 2-0 in the 45th minute though, when Andres Iniesta's slide-rule pass put forward in on goal and he coolly finished under the diving Akinfeev.

Conceding a goal at that stage was a hammer blow to the Russians, but they started the second half in confident fashion and Iker Casillas was called into action to save Sergei Semak's header, although the effort was straight at the keeper.

It was no surprise to see Spain net a third goal with 15 minutes remaining, and even less surprising to see it scored by Villa. A slick Spain move in midfield resulted in the ball being fed out to Cesc Fabregas on the right and he immediately picked out Villa in the middle.

There was still work for Villa to do, but he saw off the challenge of Roman Shirokov before clinically slotting low past Akinfeev and then racing off to the Spain bench where he celebrated with the substituted Torres.

Russia had battled valiantly throughout the match, and they were rewarded for their endeavours when Pavluchenko thumped home a diving header four minutes from time.

However, it was Spain who had the final word when a breakaway led by Villa resulted in Fabregas diving to head home after Akinfeev had parried Xavi's shot, making it 4-1.

Taken from the Guardian/Observer