17-year old Ansu Fati grabbed all the spotlight as he helped Spain to a 4-0 demolition of Ukraine in matchday 2 of the Nations League Group D.
A driving run into the box by Fati while the match was still quite young earned his side a penalty which his captain, Sergio Ramos, used for handing Spain the lead.
About half an hour later, he found the back of the net on his own. After receiving a ball from Sergio Reguilon, he cut in and fired an unstoppable strike past Andriy Pyatov.
It was a memorable moment for the FC Barcelona man as the strike made him his nation’s youngest ever goalscorer.
Friday night was only the second time Fati represented Spain at senior level, and manager Luis Enrique has hailed the teenager for the maturity he shows.
“When we choose the squad we do not look at his age. That does not mean that we do not have to understand that Ansu Fati will play bad games and will make mistakes many times. It is part of his learning, but that self-confidence is not normal,” Enrique said after the match.
“He is only 17 years old and has to mature, but that in his second game with the national team he dares to do all this…
“He has trained at an impressive pace and I am glad that he goes home with this joy.”
The Barcelona prodigy said he was humbled by his callup and the honor is a great pleasure for him as he went onto become the youngest goalscorer for Spain.
“It’s a pride and a pleasure to be here and try to learn from the best,” Ansu told Sport. “I’ll try to enjoy it to the maximum I can and with hard work, I can come here again,” he told the official media of the national side.
“I’ve been speaking all this week with Busquets. He told me to try and enjoy it and to be myself. I’ve also spoken to Jordi (Alba) and he said the same, enjoy it, be myself and that it’s a very nice experience.”