After being the first team to force Luis de la Fuente’s Euro 2024 champions to drop points, Turkiye finished second on Tuesday and will face off in the playoffs.
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As the hosts conceded their first goals in the qualification process, Dani Olmo gave Spain the lead, but Deniz Gul and Salih Ozcan struck for Turkiye.
A Spanish team looking to reclaim the biggest prize in football for the second time, led by Mikel Oyarzabal, scored equalizing in Seville.
Spain has not experienced defeat in a national record-setting 31 consecutive games and scored 21 goals in qualifying while only conceding twice.
However, that run also includes a 2-2 draw with Portugal in the June Nations League final, which resulted in penalties for Spain.
Lamine Yamal, Nico Williams, and Rodri were among the key players who Turkiye showed de la Fuente’s side were not flawless.
Without some talented goalkeeping from Manchester United stopper Altay Bayindir, they knew all they had to do was survive a seven-goal deficit, which was never a possibility, and they could have won.
Olmo was fortunate to find a defender through the cross that Marc Cucurella had placed in the box, and he did so well in the fourth minute.
The Barcelona playmaker twice attempted to score from long range, but Bayindir tipped over both attempts.
When Gul levelled just before the break, Turkiye scored the first team to score in qualifying against Spain, and the result was swift reflexes to fire home a knock-down from a corner.
Unai Simon forced Spain’s goalkeeper to two smart saves in the second half, which the visitors made with a strong performance.
Ozcan, the midfielder for Borussia Dortmund, fired home from the edge of the box after Orkun Kokcu had provided a good defense for him.
After Merih Demiral brilliantly blocked Yeremy Pino’s shot on the line, it rebounded off another defender nicely for the Real Sociedad forward and finished from close range.
Oyarzabal has staked his claim as Spain’s starting striker at the World Cup with his sixth goal in a qualifying campaign.
As Spain searched for a winner, substitute Samu Aghehowa did just that, but Bayindir held out his header before handing Alex Baena an impressive lead.
Fermin Lopez of Barcelona found the net in stoppage time, but offside rules prevented him from scoring.
Scotland also advanced to the World Cup for the first time since 1998 with two dramatic stoppage-time goals in the defeat of 10-man Denmark 4-2 on Tuesday.
Austria won Group H with a 1-1 home draw against Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Belgium defeated Liechtenstein 7-0. Following a 1-1 draw against Kosovo, Switzerland qualified.
The 12 group winners, along with the four top-ranked group winners of the 2024-2025 Nations League who did not place first or second in their groups, will make playoffs, while the runners-up will do so on their own.
On March 26 and March 31, the playoffs will be held.
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Source: Aljazeera
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