by Richard Leigh

Created on: January 31, 2010

The opening game of the Confederation Cup 2009 tournament for Euro 2008 winners Spain and 2008 OFC Nations Cup champions New Zealand, Spain had a real opportunity to send out a message to the other teams in the tournament in this one, and took little time getting on the score sheet as Fernando Torres rattled in a goal after just six minutes. Eight minutes later and Torres had his second, and just 17 minutes into the match Fernando Torres’ hat-trick was complete as he showed the lethal touch in front of goal that we all know he’s capable of.

Already cruising to victory with less than twenty minutes played, Spain still had plenty more left in the tank, and in the 24th minute of the match Cesc Fabregas added a fourth as Spain continued to dominate the game and show their superiority. 4-0 to Spain was the score at half-time, a lead that definitely didn’t flatter Spain as they’d been by far the most dominant team throughout the entirety of the first half and could easily have added more goals to the tally.

Going into the second half the game was already sewn up, and it therefore wouldn’t have been too surprising if Spain had come out with their foot off the gas for the second-half; although the game was already won there was still one more man to get his name on the scoresheet though as David Villa added a fifth just three minutes after the break. Now it was time for Spain to rest a little, making two substitutions in the 54th minute as Sergio Ramos and Xavi were removed to be replaced with Alvaro Arbeloa and Santi Cazorla, and in the 70th minute of the match the third and final change was made for Spain as hat-trick hero Fernando Torres was replaced with David Silva.

There were no more goals in this one after David Villa’s early in the second half, the Spanish team will have been very pleased with this first result of the Confederations Cup 2009 though, a result which put the team in a good place moving forward with games against Iraq and South Africa to follow. Five goals will have been a huge boost to Spain’s confidence, and as one of the favourites in the competition this will have been exactly the sort of result that Spain manager Vicente del Bosque would have been looking for.


Final Score: New Zealand 0-5 Spain

Attendance: 21,649
Referee: Coffi Codjia (Benin)
Date: June 14th 2009

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