That is, unless you’re poor old Alvaro Morata, who missed a first-half penalty, was then substituted in the 65th minute and watched on as his replacement Ferran Torres scored with his first touch mere seconds later.
First Pablo Sarabia — one of Spain’s more lively players — hit the bar on the half-hour mark and with the ball flying down under Slovakia’s bar, Dubravka inexplicably palmed the ricochet into his own net.
With Dubravka marooned off his line, Moreno lifted the ball back into the danger area and Aymeric Laporte scored his first Spain goal neatly nodding a header into the top corner.
Slovakia made two changes at half-time — their expected goals at the break read 0.00, having not had a single touch in the opposition box — but remained a distant second.
But the nature of such a one-sided match means we’re still not sure if Spain will crumble when met with a decent opponent or rise to the occasion.
Their build-up play against Slovakia was far better than it was in their 0-0 draw with Sweden, and 1-1 tie with Poland, but this was so dominant there are few reference points to see if they have finally mixed a winning formula.
Both Cesar Azpilicueta and Sergio Busquets referenced it in the build-up to Wednesday’s match, as did Jordi Alba and manager Luis Enrique, and their hopes were answered with Dubravka’s pair of first-half howlers and the subsequent Slovakian disintegration.
While Luis Enrique said pre-match he was at a 7 out of 10 in terms of level of concern over Spain’s performances, the four changes he made all worked.
“It was a textbook performance from Busquets today.
All five substitutes — Ferran Torres, Pau Torres, Adama Traore, Thiago and Mikel Oyarzabal — also had a good runout off the bench, but still we wonder how Enrique can afford to leave out the outstanding Marcos Llorente for their match against Luka Modric’s Croatia.
Marca changed their tone on Wednesday morning, as they shifted from doom and gloom, to declaring to this group of players ‘We Trust You’.