Relief for Spain and Switzerland
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Article summary
Spain's bid to regain the Under-19 title is off to a good start – but only after they and Switzerland came through a three-way tie in Group 13 above hosts Belarus.
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Belarus denied
The three-time U19 champions, under new coach Luis Milla after Ginés Meléndez took charge of the U17 squad, were able to field several of the players that won the junior tournament over the last two years and effectively booked their Elite round place with a 5-0 win against the Faroe Islands and 4-0 defeat of Belarus. So it proved despite a 2-0 loss to Switzerland, whose 2-1 defeat by Belarus on the opening day was not enough to prevent them taking second place. Belarus still have hopes of going through as one of the two third-placed teams in the 13 groups with the best record against the top pair in their pool.
Spain stroll
In front of a crowd of 4,600 at Minsk's Traktor Stadium, Spain – who exited in the group stage last July with several of this season's squad involved – strolled to an opening victory thanks to two Daniel Aquino goals plus strikes from Óscar Sielva, Mario Gaspar Pérez and substitute Nacho. Belarus fell behind with 27 minutes left against Switzerland to an Alain Wiss goal but a Dzmitry Khlebasolau penalty and Artsem Salavei strike turned the game in the hosts' favour.
U17 stars
Switzerland bounced back to beat the Faroe Islands 3-1; Marco Scönbächler and Sébastien Wütrich struck late in the first half and although substitute Klæmint Olsen pulled one back, 2008 U17 finals star Admir Mehmedi restored the two-goal cushion. Spain continued their surge with four goals against Belarus from players of 2007 U17 gold medal vintage; Fran Mérida scored on three minutes and in added time, with Aquino and David Rochela having struck in between.
Switzerland through
Only a six-goal loss to Switzerland could even have threatened Spain's Elite round berth so although Luca Zuffi and Silvan Büchli scored for Claude Ryf's team either side of half-time, Milla's squad were safe. Indeed they finished top as Belarus beat the Faroe Islands 1-0 but because of Switzerland's win, Belarus could not go through. Vitali Rushnitski's 56th-minute penalty defeated the Faroe Islands but their heavy loss to Spain counted against them in the three-way head-to-head tie-break.