Olmo's late stunner gives Spain win over Albania in Barcelona

BARCELONA : Spain's Dani Olmo struck a stunning goal in added time to snatch a 2-1 victory against Albania in a friendly on Saturday before a passionate crowd in their first game in Catalonia in 18 years.

Roared on at nearly full Cornella-El Prat stadium, last year's Euro semi-finalists dominated from the start but had to wait until the 75th minute to open the scoring as Ferran Torres finished from close range from a pass by substitute Yeremy.

But a few minutes later Myrto Uzuni equalised with Albania's only shot on target via a deflection off Eric Garcia's face.

As the game looked to be heading for a draw, Olmo received a short pass from Jordi Alba and curled a superb shot into the top corner from the edge of the box to secure the win.

Spain next take on Iceland in A Coruna on Tuesday as they continue the build-up to this year's World Cup in Qatar, which will be played in November and December.

Arguably the biggest headline about Saturday’s game was where it was played as Spain returned to Barcelona for the first time since winning a friendly 2-1 against Peru in February 2004.

More than 35,000 of the 40,000 tickets available for what would normally be a fairly low interest friendly were sold.

After years of tension between the Madrid central government and Catalonia separatist movement there were concerns about how the crowd would react but any worry disappeared from the start.

The fans joined in with the melody of Spain’s national anthem, which has no words, and were fully supportive of their team, creating a great atmosphere at Espanyol’s stadium.

The political situation, less turbulent than in the recent past, helped ease the tensions but the make up of the core of the team also played a part, with four starters from