Villa rescues Spain

FE Team | Published: March 28, 2011 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

GRANADA, Spain, Mar 27 (AFP): World Champions Spain survived a scare against the Czech Republic as a David Villa double saw them come from behind to win 2-1 Friday and maintain their 100 per cent record in qualifying for Euro 2012. Villa's predatory qualities rescued not only rescued Spain, they saw him become his country's all-time top marksman. The Barcelona man fired home twice in five minutes after Jaroslav Plasil had broken the deadlock to give the visitors a shock lead. Spain roared back and Villa claimed his 45th and 46th goals for La Furia Roja in quick succession to surpass Raul in the goalscoring charts. Raul netted his 44 goals in 102 matches but Villa has outdone him in just 72 appearances. With this win, Spain, the reigning European as well as world champions, have now been victorious in their last ten official matches since they lost the opening game of last summer's World Cup in South Africa to Switzerland. The Czech Republic remain on six points but looked as though they could have produced an upset with Plasil giving them a lead which they kept well into the second half.