Álex Baena and Marc Pubill Scored Spain's Goals in Prague

Spain flew to Prague without the players who usually decide their games. Lamine Yamal stayed in Barcelona with his knee. Mikel Oyarzabal had the flu. Rodri and Dani Olmo were missing too. So the goals, when they finally came in the rain at the Letná, came from Atlético Madrid: Álex Baena from the penalty spot in the first half, and Marc Pubill — a right-back, on as a substitute — robbing a defender and finishing the game off in the sixth minute of stoppage time. Czechia 0, Spain 2. Five games, five wins, and the world champions still have not dropped a point in this Nations League.

The first goal needed help. With the half drifting, a ball dropped into the Czech area and Lukáš Ambros threw an arm at it; VAR sent the referee to the monitor, and the penalty was given. Oyarzabal takes Spain's penalties when he plays. He was not playing, so Baena took it himself and hit it hard enough that Matěj Kovář's touch meant nothing — the goalkeeper guessed right and still watched it go past him, 39 minutes in. It was Baena's fifth goal for Spain, and the rest of his night backed it up: man of the match in the ratings, a game-high four shots, and more touches in the Czech box than anyone else on the pitch.

Baena was already having a week before he got to Prague. On Monday night, on Spanish radio, he was the Atlético player who said out loud what his dressing room thought of Julián Álvarez's public wish to join Barcelona — that it "really annoyed" the squad, as the desk reported on Wednesday. Four days later he was the one Spain's attack ran through, on a night when the Barcelona players in the side — Fermín López started, Pau Cubarsí hit the woodwork — could not find the finish themselves. There is a version of this international break that belongs to Yamal's knee. Prague belonged to Baena.

Spain thought they had the second goal two minutes after half-time, when Unai Simón launched a ball the length of the pitch and Yeremy Pino beat Kovář one-on-one — ruled out for offside. Fabián Ruiz struck the frame of the goal, Adam Hložek answered by hitting Spain's crossbar, and Czechia kept swinging from set pieces, the one route that troubled the visitors all night. Thirteen Czech shots produced not a single one on target. The game turned for good in the 72nd minute: captain Ladislav Krejčí brought down substitute Roberto Fernández as the last man on a counter-attack and was sent off — his second red card against Spain in a month.

Even then, Spain needed the last kick of the night to be safe. Pubill had replaced Pedro Porro — back in a Spain shirt for the first time since the World Cup final — in the 76th minute, and stoppage time was nearly his own highlight reel: one finish dragged wide, Fernández striking the post, and then, with Czechia trying to play out from the back, Pubill stepped in front of Tomáš Souček, took the ball off him high up the pitch and rolled a low shot past Kovář. A defender. Off the bench. Scoring the goal that ended it, 90+6.

The table now reads the way Spain would have drawn it. England beat Croatia 2-1 at Wembley on the same night — Morgan Rogers, a Petar Sučić equaliser, and Harry Kane's penalty on the night he won his 126th cap, an England record — which leaves England on 12 points, three behind Spain, with one game left. That game is on Sunday, at the Metropolitano in Madrid: Atlético's stadium, which makes it Baena and Pubill's home ground. Spain need a draw to finish first in the group; England have to win. Yamal's availability is the other half of that night — Spain expect him back in camp for it, and the two sessions he gets at Las Rozas will decide whether Thursday's stand-ins hand the stage back or keep it.

There is a number underneath all of this that is starting to bend belief: Spain are unbeaten in 44 consecutive competitive matches, and this group was supposed to be where the run got stress-tested. Instead it has been extended by the squad's edges — by a winger who spent the week answering for a teammate's transfer wishes, and by a full-back who had twenty minutes to make an impression and used the last of them. Sunday decides who tops the group. Prague decided something smaller and maybe more useful: whatever Spain are missing, somebody in that squad is ready to be it.