09/10/2015 21:37, Report by Adam Bostock
[h=1]Mata and De Gea qualify for Euro 2016[/h]
David De Gea looked on as Manchester United colleague Juan Mata came off the bench to help Spain seal a place in next summer's Euro 2016 finals.
De Gea was an unused substitute for Friday night's 4-0 win over Luxembourg, with long-term no.1 Iker Casillas starting ahead of him, but Mata was pitched into the action much earlier than anticipated after just 11 minutes. The Reds midfielder replaced the injured David Silva, whose Manchester City team-mate Sergio Aguero was withdrawn while playing for Argentina on Thursday night.
The deadlock at Estadio Las Gaunas was broken by another Barclays Premier League star, Arsenal's Santi Cazorla, shortly before the interval and the same man wrapped up the scoring five minutes before full-time. In between, Mata's fellow sub Paco Alcacer - the young Valencia striker - netted a double to dash any hopes of an unlikely comeback from the visitors.
The only other international fixture to feature United players on Friday night was at Wembley where England, who had already qualified for the European Championship, maintained a 100 per cent record in Group E by beating Estonia 2-0.
Chris Smalling completed the full 90 minutes in a centre-back pairing with captain Gary Cahill,
Phil Jones remained on the bench and
Michael Carrick joined
Wayne Rooney in missing the match through injury.
Rooney did appear on the pitch before the game, however, as he received a golden boot from
Sir Bobby Charlton to mark the United captain surpassing him as England's record goalscorer during last month's international matches.