World champions Spain crashed 4-0 away to Portugal on Wednesday, in a high-profile friendly to promote the joint Iberian bid to stage the 2018 World Cup.
Carlos Martins opened the scoring for the home side with Helder Postiga netting a brace and substitute Hugo Almeida completing the rout in added time as Spain suffered its heaviest ever defeat against their neighbours.
This is the second time that La Roja have lost heavily since winning the World Cup in July. In September they were thrashed 4-1 by Argentina in Buenos Aires.
Only around 20,000 fans were present in the 65,000 capacity Estadio da Luz, but those that did attend were rewarded with a stirring display from the hosts.
The result brings 2010 to a flat end for Vicente del Bosque’s champions. The Spain coach said that “There are no excuses for this; we have to accept the defeat. We played very badly and were very open. They were very comfortable hitting us on the break.”
Spain midfielder Cesc Fabregas, for his part, said that “We haven’t finished the year well. It was not our best game ever. Maybe we didn’t deserve to lose 4-0 but they played much better than us tonight.”
Portugal looked aggressive and purposeful from the start, hitting the Spaniards on the break with speed and clarity. Spain dominated possession but only created one clear chance in the first-half, when David Silva headed wide a good centre from Joan Capdevila.
Portugal almost took the lead in the 37th minute through a lob from Cristiano Ronaldo but Nani needlessly headed the ball in on the line — and the goal was disallowed for offside.
Just one minute later Gerard Pique had to clear a shot from Martins off the goalline. Portugal finally scored just before half-time, when Martins netted the rebound after Iker Casillas had pushed out a fierce drive from Ronaldo.
The second goal came five minutes into the second-half. Joao Moutinho escaped down the right and centred for Postiga, whose shot was clumsily pushed into his own goal by Sergio Ramos.
Nani then wasted a good chance to make it 3-0. But the third goal was not long in coming. In the 69th minute a quick break down the left from Danny led to Postiga scoring with a near-post drive.
Fabregas and Fernando Llorente went close for Spain, but substitute Hugo Almeida completed the rout in injury-time with a cool finish after being played through by Machado.
