Reigning champions Spain marched into the second round of Euro 2016 with a 3-0 stroll over Turkey.
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The group now has Spain with six points followed by Croatia with four points while the Czech Republic have one point and Turkey no points at all, after two matches each.
Spain did take the lead in the 34th minute, however, when Nolito delivered a wonderful cross onto the head of Morata, who simply guided the ball into the far corner with a clever flick.
Three minutes later, Spain doubled their advantage as Nolito capitalized on confusion in the Turkish defense. We never expected we would have such a tournament, but we have responded in these past two games and shown our winning mentality.
“Turkey is a great team”, he said.
“We have had our first objective completed to qualify for next round, we did it with a good performance, controlling the game for 90 minutes and scoring goals which we haven’t done recently so it was ideal”, he said.
Spain’s sense of balance in the team, with the usual foundation of endless, dizzying, passing triangles plus the sharpened lines to goal on top, made for an impressive mix. “You shouldn’t be pessimistic after conceding one goal against Spain, but the second made it very hard for us”. But Spain dominated and confidence was so high in the latter stages of the first half that Pique found himself in the centre-forward’s position and almost got on the end of Nolito’s cross. Gerard Pique, Spain’s scorer in the first game, had an effort from a narrow angle held by Babacan in the 69th.
Striker Burak Yilmaz threatened the Spain goal shortly after Morata’s second goal, but his wild shot went high and wide.
At his best, Turan, who first captained Turkey as a 21-year-old and helped them to reach the semi-finals at Euro 2008, has excellent technique and vision and Turkey are a different side when he is on form.
The pressure Turkey mounted in the first half seemed to dissipate and Spain barely gave them a touch of the ball.
Olcay Sahan was denied a late consolation by Cesar Azpilicueta with Spain superior in every department.
“The players on the bench kept heckling Pepe, so like I said we have feelings and sometimes will respond the way we can in a very emotional way”. But today my team threw in the towel.
“You can be sure that I will never accept this. One of them was unbelievable”, Terim said.
Flares were seen inside the stadium after the final whistle in the Stade de Nice.
Turkey offered little resistance and Spain have not lost in the European Championships since a 1-0 defeat to Portugal in 2004.
There were empty seats scattered around the Allianz Riviera from the start and thousands in the crowd departed well before the end as Spain closed out a routine win.
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The Czech Republic fought back from 2-0 down with 15 minutes to go to earn a point in a match halted by flare-throwing Croatia fans.
