Fernando Torres fires Spain to final

Slovakia 1-3 Spain
Spain progressed to Sunday's final of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship after beating a brave Slovakia side 3-1 in their final Group A game in the Marienlyst stadium in Drammen.

Fernando Torres double
Two second-half goals from Fernando Torres gave Spain, one of the pre-tournament favourites, the win they needed to top the group with seven points, one ahead of the Slovakians who will now contest the third-place play-off.

Šebo effort
The first chance of the game fell to Slovakia after two minutes when Igor Zofcák's hooked pass reached Filip Šebo but his left-footed effort was gathered comfortably by Miguel Angel Moyá in the Spain goal.

Unstoppable Cech
Šebo caused the Spaniards more problems four minutes later when he turned sharply on the edge of the penalty area and was shoved to ground by a Spanish defender. From the resulting free-kick, Marek Cech swerved an unstoppable left-footed shot past Moyá to give the Slovakians a sixth-minute lead.

Sergio equaliser
Spain were not behind for long. On 15 minutes an error by Roman Konecný, who misdirected a header from a long ball by the Spanish, gave Sergio García de la Fuente the space to pounce and he made no mistake with his finish, lashing the ball past Peter Kostaláni.

Acrobatic effort
Šebo tested Moyá with an acrobatic effort after Cech's free-kick briefly caused panic in the Spanish penalty area and Fernando Torres blasted over the crossbar when clean through but neither side truly dominated and it seemed fair that they went in level at the break.

Reyes blow for Spain
Both teams began the second half in determined fashion and Juan Alberto 'Melli' Andreu went close for Spain with a header early on. Spain suffered a blow ten minutes into the half when forward José Antonio Reyes limped off with an injury to be replaced by Carmelo J. González.

Spain in search of a goal
Spain knew that they had to find a goal from somewhere to reach the final, and as the half progressed the chances started to come at both ends. Sergio found space in the 60th minute to turn and shoot in the Slovakia area but his effort flew just wide and Fernando Torres nodded over the crossbar while Slovakia's Milan Ivana also saw an excellent long-range effort go just over.

Fernando Torres to the rescue
Spain found the goal they had been looking for in the 65th minute when Fernando Torres found space in the area to nod past Kostaláni. Slovakia made three substitutions as they went in desperate search of an equaliser and replacement Tomáš Sloboda fired over the top of the Spanish goal as his side gave it everything.

The last word
However, it was Spain who had the last word, Fernando Torres stroking his third goal of the tournament in the 90th minute as Slovakia left gaps at the back. Despite losing, Slovakia coach Peter Polák was proud of his side. "We are very proud of our team," he said. "They have played well until this occasion, today we made some mistakes and we were punished very hard. Now on Sunday we hope to come third and win the bronze medal."

Saez delighted
Meanwhile, Spain coach Iñaki Saez was delighted with his side's achievement. "Always when you have a situation like this when you know you have to win there are a lot of nerves," he said. "But you know what you have to do, you have to go out to win. One of the good things in this tournament is that we had this one match and this one match only and if we won it we were in the final."

Saez gives nothing away
When asked who he would prefer to face at the Ullevaal on Sunday, Saez gave nothing away. "We have no preference, just the side that gets there!" he said. We will all know who that is tomorrow evening."