Spain won its third match in a row when it beat Latvia 2-0 in their Euro 2008 qualifier match at the Skonto stadium on Saturday.

However the victory was not comfortable and the Spanish side needed a stroke of luck in form of an own goal to kick-start the proceedings. After a turbulent start to its qualifying campaign, Spain will now be looking ahead for the remaining matches with more confidence following the victory against Latvia.

Though the visitors took an early control of the match, they were unable to pierce the Latvian defense and had to wait until the final minute of the first half before taking the lead. Luis Garcia was handed his debut by coach Luis Aragonés and the midfielder had a great chance of scoring in the fist minute of his debut but his effort was saved by Kolinko.

While David Villa, Miguel Angel Angulo and Sergio Ramos all had chances to put Spain in the lead, they were unable to provide the finishing touch. But all that changed with a stroke of fortune for the Spanish side just before the half time whistle.

Angulo whipped in a cross from the right side and Arturs Zakreševskis, in his haste to prevent Villa from reaching it, inadvertently put the ball into his own net. Latvia entered the second half with renewed vigor and should have equalized when Maris Verpakovskis made a mess of a great chance, shooting wide with just Casillas in front of him.

Minutes later Spain put the result beyond Latvia's reach when Xavi's shot deflected off the back of teammate Andres Iniesta and looped over Kolinko into the net. After the match Aragones bemoaned the tactics used by weaker teams when facing stronger ones.

"We were by far the better side, but the problem is that these sides sit back and defend in numbers so they are often hard to break down. It was really hard to score but when we finally did it was easier to take control of the match", he said.