Spain 3-0 Serbia: La Roja secure 3 pts at home as Laporte, Morata & Baena score

Spain took a giant leap to securing Nations League quarter-final progression after Tuesday's comfortable 3-0 victory over Serbia.

Match Report

Luis de la Fuente's side will need just a point from their last two games in the competition next month after a routine win in Cordoba.

Aymeric Laporte opened the scoring after just five minutes, heading into the far corner after a well-worked corner routine allowed Pedro Porro space to deliver.

Mikel Merino's header from Alex Baena's cross was denied by the post soon after, before Spain missed a glorious chance to extend their lead after the interval.

Porro's vicious shot was adjudged to have been handled by Veljko Birmancevic, but Alvaro Morata blazed over with a disappointing 54th-minute penalty.

Captain Morata made amends just 11 minutes later, however, finishing with ease into the bottom corner after Fabian Ruiz profited on Serbia's slack attempts to play out from defence.

Further misery followed for Serbia as Strahinja Pavlovic's last-man challenge on Mikel Oyarzabal was upgraded to a red card following a VAR review, before Baena curled the resulting free-kick past Predrag Rajkovic to seal another Roja win.

Data Debrief: Unbeaten run continues for rampant Roja

De la Fuente masterminded Spain's Euro 2024 triumph, with the best team deservedly triumphing at the tournament in Germany, but La Roja's impressive run started well before that.

Spain are now unbeaten in their last 19 matches across all competitions (W17 D2), excluding friendlies, their best such streak since a 29-game run between June 2010 and June 2013 (W24 D5).

This was a typically dominant performance from the hosts, who accumulated 2.9 expected goals (xG) compared to Serbia's meagre 0.37, as the away side struggled throughout.

Match Events

0' The match is about to start!

5' GOAL! Aymeric Laporte gives La Roja the lead! Spain 1-0 Serbia

9' Match Event for Spain vs Serbia

16' Mikel Merino hits the right post with a header from the centre of the box!

20' Someone lost his shoes...

26' Match Event for Spain vs Serbia

28' Mikel Oyarzabal's shot is just high!

34' Oyarzabal's left-foot shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right!

42' Morata's header from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal!

49' Morata's shot doesn't hit the target!

54' Penalty Missed! Birmancevic's handball gives penalty but Morata's shot too high!

61' Morata's right-foot shot from the box is saved at goal center!

65' GOAL! Álvaro Morata's shot to the bottom left corner! Spain 2-0 Serbia

70' Baena right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom left corner!

77' GOAL! Álex Baena from a free kick with a right footed shot! Spain 3-0 Serbia

80' Match Event for Spain vs Serbia

Line-ups

Spain XI: Morata, Laporte, David Raya, Merino, Marc Cucurella, Fabian Ruiz, Oyarzabal, Martín Zubimendi, Dani Vivian, Álex Baena, Pedro Porro

Subs: Joselu, Alejandro Grimaldo, Álex Remiro, A.García, P. Torres, Robert Sánchez, Sergio Gómez, Óscar Mingueza, Riquelme, Pedri, Bryan Zaragoza, Pau Cubarsí

Serbia XI: Mitrovic, P. Rajković, Zdjelar, Maksimovic, Veljko Birmancevic, Milenkovic, Joveljic, Strahinja Erakovic, Lazar Samardžić, S. Pavlovic, Kosta Nedeljkovic

Subs: Grujic, Aleksandar Jovanovic, Jovic, Nikola Cumic, Aleksandar Cirkovic, Dejan Zukic, Jan-Carlo Simić, Veljko Ilic, Mihailo Ivanovic, Andrija Maksimovic