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SCORE: SPAIN 6-1 ARGENTINA
SCORERS: SPAIN- Diego Costa 12', Isco 27' 52' 74', Thiago Alcantara 55', Iago Aspas 73' ARGENTINA- Otamendi 39'
Spain were at their scintillating best in front of their home crowd as they humiliated their visitors by putting six past Agentina.
Isco starred in a wonderful performance for the 2010 World Cup Champions with Thiago, Diego Costa and Iago Aspas all getting on the score-sheet for the hosts. Lionel Messi didn't feature at all for Argentina as they struggled to function as a team once again, even without their talisman.
Spain were merciless in their finishing and relatively solid at the back, except for a slight hitch, from a set piece, that saw Manchester City's Nikolas Otamendi make it 2-1 before the break. Argentina were swept away after the restart, in a display of pragmatic yet delightful football by Julen Lopetegui's side.
Jorge Sampaoli will be left feeling gutted, but will have little time to turn things around with the World Cup lurking around the corner.
#5 This Spain side has a multi-pronged attack
Spain is often labelled as a single-dimensional team which looks to, first and foremost, get possession of the ball and keep it. They are stereotyped into a unit who likes to attack with all the opposition team lined-up in defence, sort of an attack against defence regiment that they like to employ against their opposition.
The Spanish side under their new coach seem to have developed a couple of more tricks up their sleeves.
Apart from both the recognised strikers in the side getting their names on the score sheet, Costa with the opener and Aspas with the fifth, the midfielders too chipped in with their fair share of goals.
While the opener from Costa was constructed with the vintage exquisite passing routine that comes so naturally to the hosts, the one from his replacement was anything but routine. Route one football, when you'd least expect it, got Spain home and dry.
An exhibition in pressing higher up-field rounded off the scoring for the 2010 Word Cup Champions. Thiago and Isco both kept pushing further upfield to support the strikers which paid dividends for the pair as they scored 4 between themselves.
All in all a stellar performance by the attacking unit of the Spanish national side. Plenty to be hopeful about.
#4 Isco stole the spotlight with a hat-trick
Isco finally managed to catch a break. And how!
He's been in the headlines on the back pages of newspapers for a number of reasons, hardly any for the right ones. But the Spaniard let his footballing do the business on the night and notched up a brilliant hat-trick for his side.
Recently, reports have linked him with a move away from the Bernabeu as he continues to find it impossible to break into the starting line-up for Real Madrid. He showed his discontent against the management when he was subbed off against Espanyol late February, taking 28 seconds to get off the pitch.
Although, his inconsistency this season has cost him just as much as other factors have, and he has been largely forgettable in his performances this campaign.
But he showed again last night, why he is still one of the best prospects of his generation, scoring three spectacular goals and was simply toying with the back-line of Argentina, twisting them one way, then the other. He had one of his best games in a long time and what a time to do it.
#3 For all the attacking talent, it was Nikolas Otamendi who was a menace in the opposition box
The headache for Sampaoli, it seemed, would be to find enough players in departments other than in attack. Argentina's issues are often over-simplified to reflect the abundance of forwards in their side. The problem has always been that that you can't field six or seven forwards in a side.
Sergio Aguero, Angel di Maria, Gonzalo Higuain, Paolo Dybala, Mauro Icardi, Javier Pastore, among others, form one of the most lethal attacking units in the world. And of course Leo Messi...
But it seems like the coach took the challenge, we alluded to earlier, a little too seriously because he found a way to field a team with only one legitimate forward in the side, Gonzalo Higuain - whose terrible form for the national side looks set to continue.
Despite the absence of a lot of the names we've mentioned, the Argentine side could've mustered up more forward thinking options in the line-up against Spain.
It was Nikolas Otamendi who managed to make his side's presence in the match felt, by rising highest to head the ball through his Manchester rival David de Gea's hands who, in all honesty, ought to have kept the effort out.
It was the City centre-back who headed the ball against the upright later on in the game as well, while Gonzalo Higuain cut a lone figure up-front for the majority of the ninety.
Jorge Sampaoli has a lot to think about and a lot more to fix before things get serious down in Russia.
#2 The new crop of Spanish players are carrying on the legacy with some style
Apart from Pique, Ramos and Iniesta, the team drafted by Julen Lopetegui was littered with relatively new-comers. To think that Jodi Alba is a senior in the side and he wasn't even in their conquest of the World Cup in South Africa.
When you fill the boots of the likes of Xavi and Alonso, you've got to be very good, and boy these kids are good! Thiago Alcantara comes across as someone who's been doing this for ages and he is only 26. Isco is still a year younger, but not a step behind technically. Koke adds energy to the squad and fills the void left by Xabi Alonso to a large extent.
Marco Asensio seems to play out of his skin every single time he gets on a football pitch. Two assists for the Real Madrid wonder-kid on the night meant another top-notch performance. He has been in crazy form this past couple of months or so.
Some of the football on display by the hosts was mesmerising. One touch passing, those trademark triads forming all across the pitch, not afraid to be direct - there is so much to admire about this team.
Critics will say though, that it is one thing to batter an already depleted Argentine side at home, but doing it on the biggest stage in the world - quite another. If tonight's performance was anything to go by, this lot will be raring to go in Russia!
#1 The prospects of last edition's finalists look bleak this time around
Will we have to go through life without seeing arguably the greatest player in the world lift the holy grail? Will the debate of who is the best footballer ever, never be settled? Is Lionel Messi never going to win the World Cup?
It seems like it. The unpredictability of the South Americans has cost them dearly once too many times. The repeated defeats in the finals, inability to lift their game to the levels demanded by circumstances out of your control, seems to have taken a toll on them collectively.
Defeat in extra time in the World Cup final to going down on penalties in the Copa America final, this national side has seen some trying times. And of course the drama leading upto their qualification for the competition in Russia.
They've been tested and pushed to the brink, and till now haven't found a way past the misery. Judging by what we saw tonight, the misery looks set to continue.
If they are to prove us wrong, nothing short of a miracle is going to help, and that's besides the one they already have in their side, who half of the world will be rooting for come this June.
