Fabregas gives Spain late win against luckless Chile

Sep 2, 2011, 21:14 GMT

St. Gallen, Switzerland - World champions Spain had to dig deep into their resources to come from behind and beat Chile 3-2 on Friday, in a bad-tempered friendly played in the small Swiss town of St. Gallen.

Chile swept into an early 2-0 lead with goals from Mauricio Isla and Eduardo Vargas, only for Barcelona midfielders Andres Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas to put Spain level with second-half strikes.

Fabregas - in superlative form after leaving Arsenal for Barca - made it 3-2 with an injury-time penalty, provoking an unseemly scuffle between the players.

Fabregas said that 'I have not been so happy for a long time, I am really enjoying things at the moment.'

The former Arsenal captain added: 'We seem to have trouble getting started in these friendly matches, as if we are thinking about being the world champions. But we did much better in the second half.'

'It is hard to get going in friendlies. This was not an easy game for us,' said Fabregas. 'They are a good team, and they caused us a lot of problems in the second half.'

Chile's Vargas, for his part, said that 'we let them back into the game when we should have stayed in control. We should really have drawn tonight, at the very least.'

Barcelona playmaker Xavi equalled the record of 102 caps for Spain established by striker Raul in 2006.

Isla gave Chile the lead in the 10th minute with a powerful high drive, after taking a short pass from Gonzalo Jara.

From then on, the South Americans opted to soak up the pressure and play on the break. They went 2-0 up in the 21st minute when Vargas played a clever one-two with Alexis Sanchez then rounded Spain keeper Iker Casillas to score a handsome goal.

Iniesta began Spain's fightback in the 55th minute, pulling a goal back with a fierce long drive.

Then on to the field came super-sub Fabregas - and everything quickly changed.

20 minutes from time he made it 2-2 with a clean finish, after being played through exquisitely by Iniesta.

Seven minutes from the end Chilean defender Pablo Contreras was sent off for an ugly foul on substitute Santi Cazorla, and Claudio Borghi's team began to lose their discipline.

In injury time Spain were given a dubious penalty for a supposed foul by Fernando Meneses on Alvaro Arbeloa. Chilean midfielder Jorge Valdivia, who had early been substituted, was sent off for protesting vehemently from the bench.

Chilean keeper Cladio Bravo managed to push Fabregas' penalty onto the post, but everything is going right for the latter at the moment, and the rebound fell kindly for him to make it 3-2.

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