Joselu scores twice on long-awaited debut to ease Spain past Norway

25-Mar-2023 21:52:58 | The Guardian

Joselu had waited fifteen years to make his international debut and wasn’t going to wait any longer. As fairy stories go this was a bit silly. Sent on with eight minutes left, the 32-year-old striker born in Germany and raised in Galicia, a veteran of ten clubs across three countries including Newcastle and Stoke, was only two minutes into his first game when he scored the goal that finally secured victory for Spain and only three minutes into it when he got his second. And so it was that a sometimes nervy opening night for new coach Luis de la Fuente ended with the seleccion securing a 3-0 win over a Norway team who, like everyone else, left wondering how this had happened.

Working it out might take a while, however fast it finally unfolded. After he had reached Fabian Ruiz’s clever cross to nod in the first with six minutes left, just 149 seconds since he had come on, Joselu had stood by the centre circle holding his head barely able to believe this but it was going to get even better. Next thing he knew, less than sixty seconds later, he was lying in the corner having only gone and done it again, while the Rosaleda chanted his name. A loose ball, an alert mind and a close range finish had closed the game a way that no one had foreseen but they were loving it, lauding an unexpected hero.