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Friendly international

Spain 6 - Poland 0

At last Spain put in a convincing performance, Del Bosque's side thrashing Poland 6-0 in the last warm-up game before the World Cup. After a couple of trials at altitude in Austria, the coach put out what will be close to his first choice line-up for this match against a rival considered to be similar to Spain's first World Cup opponents Switzerland. And they quickly got going, David Villa opening the scoring in the twelfth minute following a cross by Iniesta, and Silva scoring an easy second just two minutes later after Iniesta and Xavi combined to set him up. Casillas did have to save from Pesko soon afterwards, and there was a bit of concern when Iniesta limped off before half time. But six minutes after the restart Xabi Alonso latched on to Xavi's free kick to fire in a low shot which a defender deflected past his own keeper, and a few minutes later substitute Cesc Fábregas made it four just three minutes after coming on. There was more good news as Fernando Torres finally made an appearance after his long injury lay-off, and he too got his name on the scoresheet after connecting with Pedro's cross. And to round things off Pedro himself completed "the set" with his first goal for his country, the referee deciding that his lob had crossed the line before the keeper pushed it away. Navas and Ramos could have added to the total after that, but "la selección" had already done enough for the bookies to rush to their slates and mark the odds down even further. Will this be Spain's year at last, or will they disappoint us once again? We will know in a month's time! (08.06.10)