Soccer: Young Football Fern fall to Spain

Spain has beaten the Young Football Ferns 3-0 at the under-17 women's football World Cup in Costa Rica.

Sandra Hernandez opened the scoring in just the third minute before midfielder Pilar Garrote doubled Spain's lead 10 minutes before the break.

Nahikari Garcia added Spain's third in the 67th minute.

New Zealand were awarded a penalty in the final minute but Isabella Coombes struck the right post before the ball went out of play for a corner.

Spain dominated play with 27 shots at goal compared to New Zealand's three and had 70 percent of possession.

"Spain are a very good team and they deserved to win. They played some great football and really improved on their opening match," said New Zealand coach Jitka Klimkova.

"We didn't press them well enough and allowed them to have too much space. We made things a bit too easy for them, hence the rather resounding scoreline."

New Zealand play Japan in their final group match. Japan lead the group after thrashing Paraguay 10-0 today.