Luque goal gives Spain narrow win
 |  Luque celebrates his goal as Spain ended Lithuania's unbeaten Group Seven record |
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VALENCIA, Spain -- A devastating second-half strike from substitute Albert Luque gave Spain a narrow 1-0 home win over Lithuania.
The victory allowed Spain to join Serbia & Montenegro at the top of World Cup Group Seven on 12 points.
The Deportivo Coruna forward broke the deadlock when he sent a superbly struck shot fizzing past keeper Zydrunas Karcemarskas 21 minutes from time, to inflict a first defeat on the visitors.
Spain dominated throughout but a combination of some sharp keeping from Karcemarskas and some poor finishing from strikers Raul and Fernando Torres looked as though it might deny the home side the victory they deserved.
Spain will have the chance to wrest the group leadership from Serbia & Montenegro when they meet Bosnia on Wednesday.
"I knew it would be a difficult and complicated match and when you don't put the ball away it becomes even harder," said Spain coach Luis Aragones.
"It wasn't a great game, but we had more chances, more of the ball and we were clearly the better side."
Spain poured forward into attack and put Lithuania under some intense pressure in the opening minutes as they searched for an early goal against their opponents.
Left back Asier del Horno had the best chance to put Spain in front after Joaquin had wafted in a perfect cross from the right, but he sent his header over the bar.
Torres also let Lithuania off the hook when he drilled straight at Karcemarskas after Vicente had darted down the left and delivered a perfect pass to his feet on the penalty spot.
The visitors rarely threatened and concentrated instead on trying to snuff out Spain's attacks with a series of heavy challenges in midfield.
The second half began like the first and it needed a point-blank save from Karcemarskas to block Raul's close-range header five minutes after the restart.
However, Lithuania held firm and almost stole the lead when striker Robertas Poskus sent a diving header past Iker Casillas and into the net only to be pulled up for a marginal offside.
Luis Aragones decided to strengthen his attack by bringing on Luque and Luis Garcia for Torres and Del Horno and the gamble paid off when the Depor forward produced his stunning finish to earn his side a vital win.
Although the home side continued to monopolise possession, it took a marvellous last-gasp save from Casillas to prevent the visitors snatching a late draw when he tipped a fiercely struck 30-metre free kick from Robertas Poskus over the bar.
Belgium hold leaders
Leaders Serbia and Montenegro were held to a 0-0 draw at home by Belgium.
The Serbs, who have three wins and three draws from their six matches, have yet to concede a goal.
The hosts were left to rue a string of missed chances against a defensive Belgian side who lifted their tally to eight points.
Serbia forward Nenad Jestrovic, who plays for Belgian club Anderlecht, was the main culprit and visiting goalkeeper Silvio Proto produced several excellent saves.
The Belgians were twice lucky not to concede a penalty when Olivier Deschacht and then Philippe Clement appeared to handle in the box.
The visitors missed their best chance on the hour when Mbo Mpenza side-footed wide of the near post from a good position.
Belgium coach Aime Anthuenis said his side were fortunate to avoid defeat.
"We had a lot of problems early on and found it very difficult to stop the Zvonimir Vukic but settled down later on and got back into the game," he said.
"We didn't create too many openings although we needed to win. We hardly deserved more than a draw from this performance.
"It will be an uphill battle to qualify after today's result."
His Serb counterpart Ilija Petkovic had mixed emotions.
"I am not entirely unhappy because we played well and created a lot of good chances. But we failed to score and record what would have been an important win," he said.
"We were very good at the back once again but poor finishing let us down and I suppose we should be happy that we haven't been punished for our misses."
