{"id":564646,"date":"2020-09-04T04:10:24","date_gmt":"2020-09-04T08:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=564646"},"modified":"2020-09-04T04:11:23","modified_gmt":"2020-09-04T08:11:23","slug":"nations-league-spain-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/09\/04\/nations-league-spain-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"Nations League: Spain Strike in Dying Seconds Against Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Germany hosted <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/08\/20\/spain-announce-september-nations-league-squad\/\" target=\"_self\">Spain<\/a> in Stuttgart last night and made up the opening match of League A for the 2020\/21 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uefa.com\/uefanationsleague\/news\/0258-0e2bb376a99e-1984c4ff291f-1000--2020-21-uefa-nations-league\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">UEFA Nations League<\/a>, along with Ukraine who hosted Switzerland in Lviv. It was a dramatic match with entertaining football, many chances, and exclamation marks. At times, <em>La Roja<\/em> struggled, but Jose Luis Gaya&#8217;s last-second equalizer rescued a point for Spain against Germany.<\/p>\n<h2>Last-Second Equalizer Rescues Point for Spain Against Germany in Nations League<\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"word\"><span class=\"changedDisabled\" aria-describedby=\"ui-id-11\">D<\/span>avid<\/span> D<span class=\"word\">e<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"word\"><span class=\"changedDisabled\">G<\/span>ea<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"word\"><span class=\"changedDisabled\">H<\/span>eroics<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"word\"><span class=\"changedDisabled\">K<\/span>ept<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"word\"><span class=\"changedDisabled\">G<\/span>erman<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"word\"><span class=\"changedDisabled\">O<\/span>nslaught<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"word\">at<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"word\"><span class=\"changedDisabled\">B<\/span>ay<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Germany dominated the first 20 minutes of the match. Had it not been for De Gea&#8217;s superb goalkeeping, Spain could have very well been down by two or even three goals before half-time. The visitors would have to wait until the 22nd minute before even having a single shot &#8211; an decent strike from Sergio Busquets that was nonetheless a routine save for Kevin Trapp.<\/p>\n<p>Despite Spain&#8217;s chances and near-chances, Germany clearly had the upper hand. <em>Die Mannschaft<\/em> were notably better at getting the ball into wider areas and creating better chances.<\/p>\n<h3>Ansu Fati Almost Became a Hero<\/h3>\n<p>The German onslaught persisted in the second half, and they fairly obtained the lead in the 51st minute after a clinical finish by Timo Werner. Germany further cemented their superiority in the minutes following the goal and it seemed victory was inevitable.<\/p>\n<p>Then something changed. There is not one defining moment, but Spain got into the game gradually, creating more and more chances. Eventually, the 17-year-old rising star Ansu Fati equalized for La Roja during added time &#8211; except he didn&#8217;t. Sergio Ramos conceded a pointless free-kick and Fati&#8217;s first international goal was disallowed.<\/p>\n<p>Most people assumed that was Spain&#8217;s last opportunity. They didn&#8217;t quit, though, finding the equalizer in the 95th minute, despite only four minutes being added on. Jose Luis Gaya&#8217;s header denied Germany a win and earned Spain a well-deserved point.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"185ZdFsITw9XUWy2B_MZqQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1270505224\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'185ZdFsITw9XUWy2B_MZqQ',sig:'6BrXTOdLjtwYvVfOdR3FG1Lo7rcymOUyIW6W0pZv2x0=',w:'594px',h:'419px',items:'1270505224',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Germany hosted Spain in Stuttgart last night and made up the opening match of League A for the 2020\/21 UEFA Nations League, along with Ukraine who hosted Switzerland in Lviv. It was a dramatic match with entertaining football, many chances, and exclamation marks. At times, La Roja struggled, but Jose Luis Gaya&#8217;s last-second equalizer rescued [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3313,"featured_media":564667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,161],"tags":[4155,1206,351,3097,439,1777,136],"class_list":["post-564646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international-football","tag-ansu-fati","tag-david-de-gea","tag-germany","tag-nations-league","tag-spain","tag-uefa-nations-league","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Nat Goodlad, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3313"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}