Wins for Spain and Italy but Germany are held

Thu Nov 19, 2009 5:48am GMT
 

By Iain Rogers

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain marked their return to the Vienna stadium where they won Euro 2008 by thrashing 10-man Austria 5-1 while Germany were held to a 2-2 draw by Ivory Coast in friendlies on Wednesday.

David Villa netted twice for the European champions at the Ernst Happel stadium, scene of Spain's 1-0 final victory over Germany last year, to take his international goal tally to 35 in 54 appearances.

An injury-time goal from Lukas Podolski saved Germany in Gelsenkirchen and Giorgio Chiellini headed home as an experimental Italy side beat Sweden 1-0 in Cesena.

Austria, who failed to qualify for the World Cup, took a surprise lead through Jakob Jantscher on eight minutes but Cesc Fabregas levelled for Spain two minutes later.

Yasin Pehlivan was dismissed for a late challenge on Sergio Busquets in the 26th minute and Villa struck twice before the break.

Spain substitutes Dani Guiza and Pablo Hernandez then completed the rout early in the second half.

"I am happy to come here again and remember the great feelings we had two summers back," Villa said in a television interview. "I think we wrapped up the game with a convincing victory and some good play."

BACK PASS   Continued...

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