Soccer Football - Nations League - Denmark v Spain - Parken, Copenhagen, Denmark - November 15, 2024 Denmark's Morten Hjulmand in action with and Spain's Mikel Oyarzabal Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via REUTERS
(Reuters) -Spain's Mikel Oyarzabal and Ayoze Perez scored to secure a 2-1 victory over hosts Denmark on Friday and clinch top spot in Nations League Group A4 after they secured a place in the quarter-finals last month.
Spain were missing several players from the 2-1 victory over England in the Euro 2024 final but opened the scoring with a strike from inside the box by Oyarzabal after 15 minutes with Perez extending their lead on the counter in the 58th.
A mistake by Spain substitute Fabian Ruiz gifted Denmark's Gustav Isaksen a late consolation after a poor pass back.
"We came here with the objective of winning. We knew we were going to have to suffer a bit but we're happy with the result, the first place," Oyarzabal told TVE.
With one round left, Spain have 13 points, six ahead of Denmark, with bottom side Switzerland relegated after a 1-1 draw with Serbia left them on two points. Serbia have five points.
The Danes travel to Serbia on Monday needing at least a draw to secure second place and a spot in the quarter-finals.
With Spain's place in the knockouts already secured after a 3-0 home win against Serbia last month, the European champions maintained their imperious form despite missing Dani Carvajal and Rodri due to serious knee injuries and with key players like Lamine Yamal and Robin Le Normand also absent.
Luis de la Fuente's depleted Spanish side started the game well with forward Perez missing a great chance from a corner in the eighth minute and hitting the bar four minutes later.
After the visitors piled on the pressure, they finally took the lead when a mistake by Denmark's defence handed the ball to Dani Olmo who combined with Perez to provide an assist for Spain's Euro 2024 final hero Oyarzabal to fire the opener.
Spain wasted several chances to extend their lead before Olmo finally found Perez who ghosted behind the defence and beat the offside trap before slotting home inside the right post.
Denmark battled to get back into the game and Fabian Ruiz's back pass put goalkeeper David Raya under pressure with Isaksen, who had hit the post in the 78th minute, pouncing to score.
(Reporting by Fernando Kallas, editing by Pritha Sarkar and Ken Ferris)
