Euro 2016: Spain scrape through with Pique's late winner against Czech Republic

Your heart has to go out for Czech Republic who have defended like lions throughout the match. 

86

Gerard PIque has this odd habit of scoring crucial goals. Iniesta played in a lovely ball and Pique didn't miss. 

GOAL 86

Gerrard Pique heads home 

Sural comes on for Selassie. 

It seems the commentators have been given trivia about Cech's ability to play the drums and they just can't get over it. 

84

Thiago's corner was quite a damp squib and Cech held on to it more comfortably than an alcoholic holds on to his glass of beer. 

And Pedro is now on for Nolito. 

79

Another goalmouth scramble looked likely to go in but Iniesta and co and were still unable to put the ball in. What do Spain have to do to score? 

78

Aduriz was close again but somehow proceeded to head it just wide off the goal. Cech is bemused. Aduriz has given Spain to play the ball in the air. 

76

Aduriz just tried his best Wayne Rooney impression with that bicycle kick but it was well wide. That shot is harder than it looks. 

72

How did David Silva miss that? After some brilliant work around the edge of the area, it feel for Silva who somehow denied proceeded to miss. 

70 

And somehow the match is still 0-0 despite that brilliant ball in. 

65

Cesc Fabregas just made a crucial block in the defence which prevented what looked like a sureshot. 

62

And Morata comes off for veteran striker Aritz Aduriz. 

60 

Silva appeared to float through but Limbersky had other ideas and we have the first booking of the match. 

50 

Spain have taken it up a notch in the second half. Nolito fooled his defender with a clever dummy and backheeled it for ALaba whose low cross across the goal went begging. 

47

Rosicky thought he was clear through but an excellent block from Iniesta which stopped him in his tricks. 

45 

That's a lively start but somehow Petr Cech keeps it out again.  Fabregas takes the corner, there's a goalmouth scramble but a combination of the Czech defence and Petr Cech keep it out. 

The teams are now walking out for the second half. 

Will Spain concede today?

16 - Spain have conceded just one goal in their last 16 hours of football at the European Championship finals. Sweet.

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 13, 2016

This says a lot about how the first half has gone. 

Petr Cech: Had 24 touches in the first half vs Spain, only Vladimir Darida (26) had more for the Czech Republic #ESPCZE

— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) June 13, 2016

44 Finally the Czech Republic have a shot on target and David De Gea finally has something to do. 

43 Nolito slipped and he also doesn't seem to have happy about that offside flag. 

39 Petr Cech is a man on a mission. Perhaps he is playing to avenge the Battle of the Bridge that Chelsea lost against Barcelona in which Iniesta scored in 2009. 

37 And now Iniesta is fouled. Cesc stands over the ball and floats it in but the Czech defence is up for it. 

Spain have had the lion's share of the possession but that's hardly anything new. The Cech, sorry the Czech Republic, are defending hard. 

16  Spain’s Morata, who earlier in the game had comically tackled the linesman thought he’d scored but somehow Cech made himself unnaturally big to make one of the saves of the tournament so far. David Silva’s ball was an absolute peach but Petr Cech was in in no mood to play ball.

14 Andres Iniesta's free-kick found Ramos but the Real Madrid man was unable to head it home. It's harder than it looks folks. 

That Morata challenge again

Morata parte forte, abbattendo il guardalinee con un entrata a piedi uniti! XD #Euro2016 pic.twitter.com/cJgGTbuOyz

— Sciabolata Morbida (@sciabolatablog) June 13, 2016

10 Wow Morata just took the linesman out with that tackle. That was hard. who said only the English tackle hard? 

7 That's offside. Not one but two of them. Spain need to do better. But Petr Cech saved it anyway. The Czech defence needs to be more careful. 

5 That however ends up hitting the wall. 

4 Czech Republic have a free kick very close to the Spain box. 

2 Spain has comfortably kept the ball for the first two minutes. They have passing the ball among their midfielders the only way they know how to. Czech Republic however have a corner now. That's another corner. 

Del Bosque's decision to start with David De Gea will please the keeper who has been under some pressure due to an alleged party that he organised in 2012. Del Bosque's approach is in stark contrast to De Gea's former club coach at Manchester United Louis Van Gaal who dropped the keeper when it appeared that he was heading off to Real Madrid. 

And the lads are now walking onto the pitch for the national anthem. 

Look at the line-ups. Do you fancy this Spain squad? 

A look at the lineups with 45 minutes to go before kick-off! #EURO2016 #ESPCZE pic.twitter.com/13fp3ZFKdO

— UEFA EURO 2016 (@UEFAEURO) June 13, 2016