Madrid (AFP) – Celta Vigo forward Nolito strengthened his case for inclusion in Spain coach Vicente del Bosque’s squad for Euro 2016 with his first two international goals in a 3-1 friendly win over Bosnia and Herzegovina in Saint Gallen, Switzerland, on Sunday.
Del Bosque named an experimental side with no players from Champions League finalists Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid or those sides involved in domestic Cup finals last weekend, including Barcelona and Bayern Munich, other than out of favour Barca defender Marc Bartra.
Nolito has been included in Del Bosque’s provisional 25-man squad — which will be trimmed to a definitive list of 23 on Tuesday — after leading Celta to Europa League qualification with 12 goals this season.
And it would be a huge surprise if the former Barcelona man is now cut from the squad as he curled expertly into the far coner before delightfully chipping Bosnia’s Chelsea goalkeeper Asmir Begovic to make it 2-0 after just 18 minutes.
Hamburg defender Emir Spahic halved Bosnia’s deficit when he headed home from a corner just before the half hour mark.
However, Spahic then got himself needlessly sent-off just before half-time when he clashed with Cesar Azpilicueta.
Having named three debutants in goalkeeper Sergio Asenjo, Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin and Real Madrid midfielder Marco Asensio in his starting line-up, Del Bosque handed four more youngsters their international debuts in the second-half.
However, it was one of the old guard in Chelsea forward Pedro Rodriguez who added the third deep into stoppage time.
Spain have two more warm-up friendlies against South Korea in Salzburg, Austria, on Wednesday and Georgia in Madrid on June 7 before they begin their defence of the European Championships against the Czech Republic in Toulouse on June 13.
