Spain thrash Bulgaria but Georgia test Turkiye in 2026 World Cup qualifiers

Spain cruise to 3-0 triumph successful Bulgaria portion Turkiye clasp disconnected Georgia fightback arsenic Group E of World Cup qualifiers begins.

Spain kicked disconnected their World Cup 2026 qualification run with an emphatic 3-0 triumph successful Bulgaria.

The Euro 2024 champions eased to a comfy triumph connected Thursday astatine the Vasil Levski Stadium successful Sofia with first-half goals from Mikel Oyarzabal, Marc Cucurella and Mikel Merino.

Recommended Stories

• list 1 of 4All French pistillate boxers retired of satellite championships implicit familial trial row
• list 2 of 4Big dreams but nary macromolecule shake: Yemeni bodybuilder warring to marque it
• list 3 of 4Who are the teams, and what are their squads for Asia Cup 2025?
• list 4 of 4NBA to analyse Kawhi Leonard-LA Clippers endorsement deal

Spain manager Luis de la Fuente was capable to bring connected Rodri Hernandez and Dani Carvajal for their archetypal planetary appearances successful respective months aft some recovered from terrible genu injuries.

Spain, who won the World Cup for the archetypal and lone clip successful 2010, are expected to apical Group E, which besides contains Turkiye and Georgia, to scope the tourney successful the United States, Canada and Mexico directly.

This was the archetypal clip Spain person faced Bulgaria successful much than 20 years, with the past competitory gathering astatine the 1998 World Cup.

Oyarzabal leads the enactment again for Spain

Arsenal midfielder Martin Zubimendi acceptable up his erstwhile Real Sociedad teammate Oyarzabal for the opener with a good walk arsenic Spain took the pb aft 5 minutes.

Radoslav Kirilov deed the station for the hosts earlier Chelsea defender Cucurella thumped successful to treble Spain’s pb aft the shot dropped into his path.

The crippled was efficaciously implicit earlier the interruption erstwhile Barcelona winger Lamine Yamal whipped successful a corner, which Merino nodded home, reflecting Spain’s domination.

Arsenal midfielder Merino deed the crossbar successful the 2nd fractional arsenic Spain continued to dominate. Teenager Yamal was agleam and unsafe without scoring.

Man City midfielder Rodri and Real Madrid’s Carvajal made their long-awaited returns disconnected the seat arsenic De la Fuente shuffled his pack. They had missed 7 and 9 months each, respectively.

The manager besides handed Jesus Rodriguez his planetary debut successful the last stages, with the Como winger replacing Yamal to circular disconnected a good evening for La Roja.

Up adjacent for Spain is different distant game, a travel to Turkiye connected Sunday, portion Bulgaria question to look Georgia the aforesaid day.

Turkiye fixed past scare by Georgia

Turkiye won 3-2 distant to Georgia earlier connected Thursday successful the different Group E match, but lone aft surviving a precocious scare.

The distant broadside had been reduced to 10 men erstwhile Baris Alper Yilmaz was shown a consecutive reddish paper successful the 71st minute.

By that point, they already led done Kerem Akturkoglu’s strikes either broadside of the interval and a third-minute header from Mert Muldur.

Zuriko Davitashvili had pulled 1 backmost for the location broadside successful the 63rd minute, but Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s effort 8 minutes into wounded clip meant a much tense decorativeness than Turkiye had anticipated.

Source:

Al Jazeera and quality agencies