Chelsea FC’s Diego Costa Quiet For Spain, Gary Cahill Starts For England
Two of Chelsea FC’s regular starters were in action for their respective countries today in Euro 2016 qualifiers. Spain faced minnows Macedonia and England took on Switzerland at Wembley Stadium.
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With England having already qualified, the most popular storyline of the day was whether or not Wayne Rooney would break Sir Bobby Charlton’s goalscoring for the Three Lions. England was already in the lead through Harry Kane when Raheem Sterling was awarded a soft penalty late in the second half. Rooney stepped up amid the pressure and buried the penalty and took his place atop the England scoring charts. It was a big moment for the Manchester United striker and it dominated the headlines, and rightfully so.
Lost in the hype surrounding Wayne Rooney’s record-breaking performance was England keeping yet another clean sheet in these Euro qualifiers. They have been the dominant force in an easy group but their record of three goals conceded in eight matches is still fantastic. Some of that credit has to go to Chelsea FC centerback Gary Cahill who has been in a constant in the center of defense for Roy Hodgson.
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The manager has done some mixing and matching with the men lining up alongside Cahill but has to commit to one player. Cahill played the full 90 for England in a fixture that was initially earmarked as a potential group decider when the schedules were released but they have done well to remove all suspense from the match. They did well to control the match against a solid Swiss attack that featured the likes of Xherdan Shaqiri and Josip Drmic.
Diego Costa had another quiet day at the office for the Spain national team. La Roja took the lead through a fluke cross-turned-goal from Juan Mata and seemed content to do just enough to beat a side that never really challenged them. The service was never quite there for Costa as Spain played a conservative match against the bottom club in their group.
Costa had one chance from a saved shot but David Silva took it right off his toe and the ball was cleared by a Macedonia defender. The striker has spoken openly about his need for more goals in a Spain shirt and a match against a poor team such as Macedonia would have been a good opportunity but it never materialized. Still, he is Spain’s number one striker at the moment and there are no serious challengers for his place so he is expected to go to Euro 2016 as the starter.
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