European champions Spain claimed a place in the Nations League quarter-finals with a 3-0 home win over Serbia, thanks to goals by Aymeric Laporte, Alvaro Morata and Alex Baena on Tuesday.

With two games left, Spain have secured at least a second-place finish as they top League A Group Four with 10 points, three ahead of Denmark and six clear of Serbia, with Switzerland bottom on one point after a 2-2 home draw with the Danes.

Spain were missing several players from the team that beat England 2-1 in the Euro 2024 final in July but still outclassed Serbia with 30 shots.

Defender Laporte gave the Spaniards the lead with a close-range header in the fifth minute and Morata extended Spain’s lead with a strike from just inside the box after 65 minutes.

Serbia’s Strahinja Pavlovic was shown a straight red card for a last-man foul on Mikel Oyarzabal on the edge of the area in the 78th and Baena curled a delightful free-kick into the top corner to wrap up an easy victory for Spain.

Portugal all but sealed a berth in the quarter-finals with a 0-0 draw away to Scotland, the first points Roberto Martinez’s side have dropped in their four games.

The Portuguese remain top of Group A1 with 10 points, three ahead of Croatia, who drew 3-3 away to Poland.

Eriksen shines

Denmark’s Christian Eriksen created one goal and scored another to grab a 2-2 draw against Switzerland, who were pegged back twice in their clash.

Switzerland went ahead when Remo Freuler reacted quickest in the box to lash a loose ball past goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel in the 26th minute but the lead lasted just over a minute as Eriksen chipped a quick free-kick into the path of Gustav Isaksen, who scored with a first-time left-foot shot.

The brace of quick-fire goals was greeted by a heavy fog rolling in across the pitch, but it did not prevent referee Umut Meler from seeing Switzerland’s Breel Embolo getting hacked down by Patrick Dorgu just before the break and Zeki Amdouni made no mistake from the penalty spot to make it 2-1 for the hosts.

Once again Eriksen came to the rescue with a cool, cushioned shot from Pierre-Emil Hojbjerg’s lay-off in the 69th minute.

Reuters