EVEN MESSI IS NOT TH-IS GOOD

MARCO VERRATTI said Spain star Isco hit levels not even Lionel Messi can reach in Spain’s stunning 3-0 defeat of Italy.

And the Italy midfielder claimed he wanted to stand and applaud after he had been embarrassingly nutmegged by the Real Madrid man.

Isco stole the show in the Bernabeu Stadium on Saturday as Spain moved three points clear at the top of Group G.

The 25-year-old scored twice, with Chelsea’s Alvaro Morata adding a third, as Italy slumped to a qualifying-group defeat for the first time in 11 years.

And he capped his display with a piece of trickery that completely outwitted PSG star Verratti.

The Italian admitted: “When I saw his nutmeg, I felt like standing up and applauding too.

“I suffered a lot against Isco. I was taken aback by his performance. Not even Messi has come close to that level.”

Italy coach Giampiero Ventura agreed. “It was incredible to see a player as good as Isco up in the flesh,” he said.

“Just look at the nutmeg in the second half, he’s in the middle of two players and he does that, it shows he is a truly great player. I congratulate him and I wanted to jump up and applaud him because I love to see technique like that.”

Spain travel to Liechtenstein tomorrow before wrapping up the campaign against Albania and Israel next month.

Julen Lopetegui’s side are clear favourites to top the group and condemn Italy – who face Israel next – to the play-offs. The Spanish coach, though, insists it is too early to start planning for next summer’s finals in Russia. Lopetegui said: “We’ve a long way to go. What’s left ahead of us is the most complicated part, which is finishing things off. We have three games left, we have to win them to achieve first place.”

Italy boss Ventura was forced to defend himself after coming in for heavy flak for the defeat.

He said: “If one match cancels out all the good work done so far, then I may as well give up now. If we had won here and lost against Israel on Tuesday, we would have gone to the play-offs anyway.”