Spain thrash Slovakia 5-0 to storm into UEFA Euro 2020 knockout stage

A lot had been said about Spain's toothless attack prior to this game played in Seville.

In fact, some had even questioned the players’ willingness to fight for the badge but all these fears were allayed from the first whistle as Spain set out like a house on fire.

Their attacking endeavours were rewarded with a penalty when Koké was brought down in the box within the first ten minutes of the match.

The referee initially gave Slovakia a free kick but changed his decision after consulting the Video Assistant Referee (VAR).

Alvaro Morata stepped up but failed to beat Martin Dúbravka from twelve yards.

A sign of bad luck? No, Spain relentlessly attacked the Slovaks and found the breakthrough thirty minutes in when Dúbravka patted the ball into his own net; penalty hero became instant villain and this opened the floodgates for Spain.

Aymeric Laporte, the Manchester City defender, who recently changed his nationality from France, scored with a looping header from a Gerard Moreno assist on the stroke of halftime to make it 2-0.

In the second half, Spain picked from where they left and made it 3-0 through the impressive Pablo Sarabia, who then assisted Ferran Torres for the fourth goal.

Torres had just come in for Morata on the 66th minute when, with virtually his first touch of the game, he scored a minute later.

The Spanish superiority was affirmed four minutes later when Juraj Kucka scored an own goal with the Spaniards proving dominant and repressive on Wednesday, Slovakia couldn't even muster a shot on target.

In the other game in this group, Sweden put Poland to the sword to make sure of top spot.

Emile Forsberg scored a brace before Robert Lewandowski also scored a brace of his own to make it 2-2. Poland looked likely to score a third goal only for Viktor Claesson to score late on for Sweden to condemn Poland to the bottom of the group.