Spain vs. Macedonia: Score and Reaction for World Cup 2018 Qualifying

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Spain remained atop Group G in 2018 World Cup qualifying Saturday, as they defeated Macedonia 4-0 at Estadio Nuevo Los Carmenes in Granada, Spain.

The Spaniards now have three wins and one draw. Vitolo, Nacho Monreal and Aritz Aduriz contributed goals Saturday, and an own goal by Macedonian defender Darko Velkovski opened the scoring in the first half.
According to OptaJose, La Roja predictably entered the contest with a great deal of recent success against their overmatched opponents:
Spain also boast a long unbeaten streak in World Cup qualifying, and Macedonia were the latest casualty in that run of dominance:
La Furia Roja dominated the first half from a possession standpoint, but they were unable to generate many high-quality chances and did little to bother opposing goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski.
Despite that, they managed to take the lead in the 34th minute when a headed clearing attempt by Velkovski ended up in the back of his own net.
That could have allowed the floodgates to open, but Macedonia hunkered down and managed to get to halftime with the one-goal deficit intact.
As ESPN.com's Dermot Corrigan pointed out, Spain appeared to be struggling to mesh together from an attacking standpoint:
He was especially critical of the midfield linking between Thiago Alcantara and Koke:
Even so, Koke was quite active in the first half, especially in comparison to the entire Macedonian side:
While Spain were the better team in the opening half, Macedonia looked a bit more dangerous on the attack at times, which made the 1-0 advantage somewhat uncomfortable.
The Spaniards needed an insurance marker in order to breathe a bit easier, and they finally got it in the 63rd minute when Vitolo scored off a header.
According to Squawka Football, Vitolo is in the midst of a hot streak for the national team:
With things looking bleak for Macedonia, they opened up their attack and attempted to put some heat on Spain and goalkeeper David De Gea.
For a moment, it appeared as though Ferhan Hasani had cut the lead in half with a goal in the 68th minute, but it was ruled offside.
De Gea made a great save on Enis Bardhi one minute later, and that essentially ended the Macedonian threat for the rest of the match.
Spain managed to increase the margin in the latter stages, however, as Monreal scored his first national team goal in the 84th minute to make it 3-0.
Yet another Spain goal followed in the 85th minute, as the 35-year-old Aduriz found the back of the net and bolstered his excellent form for club and country:
David Silva assisted on Aduriz's goal, which gave him a hand in eight goals over the course of his past five matches for Spain:
The late goals made the match look like a blowout, but Macedonia did manage to hang tough for much of the contest and didn't allow Spain to find much of a rhythm.
Spain's pure talent won out in the end, though, and they appeared to find their groove near the end of the match when Macedonia were forced to take some chances.
Spain was heavily favored to win, and by virtue of their victory, they took another big step toward qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
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