Spain grab draw with Scotland

Spain were fortunate to scramble a 1-1 draw at home to Scotland on Friday in a friendly international football match that was abandoned after an hour because of a floodlight failure and a waterlogged pitch.

Skipper Raul scored from the penalty spot 12 minutes into the second half to cancel out a first half own goal from midfielder Ruben Baraja, but the game came to a sudden halt three minutes later because of a power cut.

Torrential rain continued to fall during the ensuing 30-minute delay and match officials decided to call the game off because the pitch had become unplayable.

Spain had flattered to deceive in the opening exchanges, but were increasingly unable to cope with a determined and ambitious Scotland.

They were lucky not to fall behind when goalkeeper Iker Casillas failed to claim a Barry Ferguson free kick and defender Carles Puyol had to scramble the ball off the line in the 17th minute.

But the visitors were rewarded for their pressure a minute later when Baraja headed into his own net as he tried to clear James McFadden's tricky in-swinger from the resulting corner.

The Scots could have added two more before the break, but striker Stevie Crawford was twice denied by sharp saves from Casillas.

Spain coach Luis Aragones had left skipper Raul on the bench in the first half, but brought him on at the start of the second and the Real Madrid striker made an immediate impact when he helped manufacture a penalty in the 57th minute.

He got to the byline after picking up a neat pass from Jose Antonio Reyes, cut the ball back to his team mate who was then felled by Celtic defender Jackie McNamara as he shaped to shoot from five metres out.

Raul scored from the resulting penalty to save his side's blushes just three minutes before the game ground to a halt when the floodlights failed.

Scotland coach Berti Vogts will have been pleased by his side's performance ahead of next week's World Cup qualifier against Slovenia.

But his opposite number Aragones will be concerned by his team's failure to create any clear chances ahead of their first qualifier in Bosnia.