International Matches

Croatia 0 - Spain 0

Spain played out a well-merited draw in Split against a Croatia side which included some old faces, including ex Real Madrid players Jarni and Suker. With Guardiola, Sergi, Julen Guerrero, Raúl and Morientes all injured, Camacho lined up a mixture of regular first choice players such as Hierro and Luis Enrique with new faces such as Velasco and Fran. Molina kept his place in goal ahead of Juanmi, with Cañizares apparently out in the wilderness, and Molina's spotless performance further established his claim to the number one position. Hierro played his 69th match for 'la selección', bringing him level with Butragueño as the fourth most capped player of all time. For the record, Gordillo had 75 caps, Camacho 81, and Zubizarreta is the most capped with 126 appearances. Luis Enrique played in an unfamiliar position in attack (although he did start his career at Gijón at centre forward), behind Bilbao's Urzaiz, and he looked the most likely to score, with Pletikosa making a couple of saves from him. With five changes currently allowed in friendly games, Camacho brought on Paco and Mendieta at half time, and gave Romero and Víctor their first caps in the second half. Salva also came on late in the game for Urzaiz. In the last few minutes Velasco went off injured, and having made all their possible substitutions, Spain were forced to play on with ten men.

Croatia: Pletikosa, Saris, Stimac, Soldo, Tomas, Jarni, Jurcic, Asanovic (Cvitanovic 84'), Kovak (Vucko 64'), Vugrinec, Suker.

Spain: Molina, Velasco, Abelardo, Hierro (Paco 46'), Aranzábal, Etxeberria (Romero 82'), Engonga, Fran (Mendieta 46'), Valerón, Luis Enrique (Víctor 63'), Urzaiz (Salva 77').


Under 21 international

Croatia 3 - Spain 1

Spain's talented under 21 team lost their first game in 30 in this friendly against Croatia, who they will meet later in the year in the European under 21 finals. Xavi levelled the scores on the half hour after Babalan had given the home side an early lead, but two goals by Miladin and again Babalan meant their first defeat since October 1995. Barcelona's Puyol made his debut and Málaga's Luque was injured and will be out for three weeks. The Spanish team was as follows:

Casillas (Aranzubia 61'), Puyol, Sergio, Unai, Capdevila (Lacruz 61'), Angulo, Xavi, Ismael, Velamazán, José Mari (Luque 46', Pablo 61'), Tamudo (Gerard 46').

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