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Friendly international

Spain 2 - Eire 0

A second and final win for Spain in the pre-Confederations Cup warm-up games, a 2-0 victory over Eire in the Yankees Stadium in New York giving Del Bosque's team a boost before the trip to Brazil. The coach put out a side which may well start against Uruguay next week, with no less than eight Barcelona players in the initial line up, including Víctor Valdés in goal. True to form Spain took control from the start, Pedro, Villa and Iniesta all going close in the opening ten minutes, and Pedro hitting the bar later on in the first half. Ireland's only reply came when Sammon rounded Valdés only to shoot wide, and midway through the second half substitute Soldado latched on to Arbeloa's lobbed pass to fire an angled shot past Forde. Casillas also came on to show that his forced spell on the Real Madrid bench had not dulled his reflexes, the keeper making important saves from McClean and Cox, and with two minutes to go Cazorla combined with Mata for him to wrap things up. (11.06.13)