Spain 4-0 Lithuania: Youngsters seal impressive win with senior players isolating
Sixteen players made their debuts as La Roja's kids stepped in following Busquets' positive
Spain handed debuts to 16 players as they beat Lithuania 4-0 in their final game before their Euro 2020 opener against Sweden next Monday.
Sergio Busquets tested positive for Covid-19 earlier this week, forcing the entire Spain squad to isolate and leading to the U21s taking on Lithuania on Tuesday.
Of the 17 players used by Luis de la Fuente -- Spaun coach Luis Enrique is also isolating -- only Bryan Gil had previously been capped by the senior side.
The other 16, including Barcelona defender Oscar Minguez and La Masia graduates Marc Cucurella, Abel Ruiz, Juan Miranda and Josep Martinez, all won their first cap for their country.
It didn't take long for Spain's youngsters to take the lead at Butarque, the home of Leganes, with Valencia defender Hugo Guillamon firing them into a third-minute lead.
Brahim Diaz made it two in the 24th minute and it would have been three before the break if Ruiz hadn't missed a penalty won by Gil.
The third goal eventually arrived in the 53rd minute when Miranda, who swapped Barca for Real Betis permanently last week, scored a free-kick.
The impressive Espanyol striker Javi Puado added the fourth with 20 minutes to play to cap a brilliant performance from Spain's young team of debutants.
To put the result into perspective, Lithuania only lost 2-0 to Italy and 1-0 to Switzerland in World Cup qualifiers as recently as March.
However, as well as Spain played on Tuesday, none of those involved are likely to feature against Sweden in Seville on Monday when Luis Enrique's side kick off their Euro 2020 campaign.
La Roja are currently waiting for the results of further tests after Busquets' positive forced him to return home to Barcelona to quarantine.
If no more positives come back following Tuesday's testing (there were no further positives on Monday), Spain can resume training as usual, their preparations for the tournament damaged but the blow hopefully not fatal.
The other scenario doesn't bear thinking about, even if Spain are planning for everything.
Kepa Arrizabalaga, Raul Albiol, Rodrigo Moreno, Pablo Fornals, Carlos Soler and Brais Mendez have all been summoned and are training separately at Las Rozas as part of a "parallel bubble" squad.
Luis Enrique has until Saturday to make changes to his original 24-man squad because of injuries or Covid-19.
After Sweden, Spain face Poland on June 19 and Slovakia on June 23.
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