Cesc Fabregas defends Chelsea teammate Diego Costa after failure to score in

Vicente Del Bosque could field a much-changed Spain side in Tuesday night’s Euro 2016 qualifier with Macedonia.

“We were surprised by their win, they were organised in counterattacks and the result was fair”, Costa said of their last match-up. David Silva was the architect as he played a deft little chip over the defence from just outside the area, allowing Jordi Alba to run onto the ball and head it home.

“We were very close to calling Victor Valdes, he has always done well for the national team”.

“We need to win in order to take a step forward”, Alcacer told Marca.

The hosts are not overly concerned about the outcome of this game, although they are just three points ahead of Ukraine and they will face the Eastern Europeans on the road. We have to make use of our squad and we have faith in everyone.

Alba was similarly impressed by Spain’s rapid start.

“Against a team playing so defensively the player who has the most hard job is the one in his position”.

“I’ve known for weeks that the game in November would, if we qualified, be played there”, he confirmed.

The Spanish entertain Slovakia knowing that a win would go a long way towards taking them to the top of their qualifying group, but that a defeat could leave them looking over their shoulder, reports Xinhua.

After the Chelsea striker struck his team-mate with a cheeky elbow, Ramos took his revenge and tripped Costa, sending him sprawling out on the deck.

Spain were enjoying the vast majority of possession, but didn’t create another clear-cut opportunity until Kozacik was harshly adjudged to have brought down Diego Costa as he burst clear on goal and Iniesta converted from the spot.

Deploying De Gea would be a vote of confidence for the Manchester United player, whose planned transfer to Real Madrid broke down in farcical circumstances last week when the paperwork was filed too late. Spain continued to dominate the game and frustrated the Slovaks showing serious composure and class in the second half despite not scoring.

“I never thought I have made a mistake in that, the only thing that bothers me is that I am not paying back what people have given me”, the former Atletico Madrid star said.