Spain snatched
a late draw against Germany with a last-gasp Jose Gaya goal as the UEFA Nations
League got underway on Thursday, marking the return of international football following
a 10-month hiatus due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

The League
A Group 4 encounter came to a dramatic finish as Valencia fullback Gaya tapped
in the equaliser in the sixth minute of injury time in Stuttgart after a Ferran
Torres cross was nodded down by Rodrigo Moreno.

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Newly-signed
Chelsea strike Timo Werner gave Germany the lead early in the second half in
what was a gripping encounter between two of the last three World Cup winners.

This was
Luis Enrique’s first game in his second spell in charge of ‘La Roja’ despite
being appointed in November 2019, soon after Spain’s final Euro 2020 qualifying
game.

“This team
is full of faith and hunger. We didn’t deserve to lose and we kept fighting to
the end,” Spain captain Sergio Ramos, who earned his 171st cap on the
night, said.

These two
teams will be hoping to feature prominently in the European Championship, which
was postponed by a year due to the pandemic and is slated to be held in June-July
2021.

Meanwhile, the
second edition of the Nations League will be crammed into the next three months,
with the winners of the four League A groups advancing to the finals in 2021.

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All games
are currently being played behind closed doors like the recently concluded Champions
League and Europa League tournaments in Lisbon and Germany. The stands were therefore
empty as Barcelona winger Ansu Fati became the second-youngest player for Spain.
 

At 17 years
and 308 days, he is only a few weeks older than Angel Zubieta was when he
played against Czechoslovakia I 1936.

Elsewhere,
in the same group, Manchester City’s Oleksandr Zinchenko scored a brilliant
goal to give Ukraine a 2-1 win over Switzerland in Lviv.

His goal came after Swiss
striker Haris Seferovic cancelled out Andriy Yarmolenko’s backheel effort that put
the hosts into the lead.   

In League
B, Artem Dzyuba scored a brace to help Russia to a 3-1 win over Serbia in Moscow, while in
the same Group 3, Hungary were surprise 1-0 winners away in Turkey.

In Group 4,
Wales beat Finland 1-0 in Helsinki with out-of-favour Real Madrid star Gareth Bale
among the starters, although he was taken off at half time. Keiffer Moore
scored the winner 10 minutes from time.   

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“Gareth
Bale has had no football at all,” Wales manager Ryan Giggs said.

“It was a
real juggling act, picking the team. Gareth has had the least football out of
everyone and I thought, ahead of Sunday, it would be best to take him off.”

Wales will next
feature on Sunday against Bulgaria, who drew at home to the Republic of Ireland.
Bozhidar Kraev gave Bulgaria the lead before Shane Duffy pulled the visitors
level in stoppage time in Ireland manager Stephen Kenny’s first game in charge.

Italy will
host Bosnia and Herzegovina in Florence on Friday with last year’s beaten
finalists the Netherlands also in action for the first time since manager Ronald
Koeman departed to take the helm at Barcelona.

‘The Oranje’
will host Poland in Amsterdam.