Ominously for Serbia, Spain had ended up on the losing side only twice across their previous 24 matches (W20, D2) and needed just five minutes to break the deadlock against the backdrop of a downpour in Cordoba.
Pedro Porro’s delightful delivery towards the back post was expertly headed home into the far corner of the net by his defensive counterpart Amyeric Laporte.
Luis de la Fuente’s side’s unparallelled dominance persisted as the game surpassed the quarter-hour mark, with Mikel Oyarzabal’s solo effort blocked by Predrag Rajkovic before Mikel Merino’s header struck the base of the post from the resulting corner.
The Serbian shot-stopper was called into action again by Oyarzabal shortly after the half-hour mark as the scorer of Spain’s match-winner in the UEFA EURO 2024 final against England saw his goal-bound effort sublimely tipped around the post.
Having so far failed to find the back of the net across their history against Spain, Serbia manager Dragan Stojkovic, who was clearly unimpressed by his side’s solitary effort on target in the first half, called upon the services of substitutes Marko Grujic and Luka Jovic at the break.
However, it was Spain’s captain Alvaro Morata who spurned a glorious chance to double his side’s advantage in the 54th minute as he blazed his penalty into orbit after Veljko Birmancevic had been deemed to have handled Porro’s fierce effort.
The visitors should have been back on level terms soon after, however, Aleksandar Mitrovic uncustomarily misfired in front of goal while under no considerable pressure. Ruthlessly, Spain made Serbia pay for that miss minutes later, as Morata atoned for his missed penalty by sublimely side-footing the ball beyond Rajković following an awe-inspiring one-two with Fabian Ruiz.
Things then went from bad to worse for Serbia in the space of a demoralising 60 seconds.
First, Strahinja Pavlovic’s initial yellow card was upgraded to a straight red in the 76th minute after VAR and the on-pitch monitor convinced referee Daniel Stefański the defender had denied a clear goalscoring opportunity before Alex Baena exquisitely fired the resulting free-kick past Rajkovic.
The crossbar prevented substitute Pedri from getting his name on the scoresheet not long after, as victory guarantees Spain's place in the quarter-finals that are scheduled to take place next year.
Third-placed Serbia will now ideally want to win both of their remaining matches against Switzerland and Denmark to stand a chance of qualifying for the next stage of the 2024/25 edition of the competition, and avoid relegation.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Pedro Porro (Spain)
