The Spanish women's football team warmed up for its challenge for the forthcoming European Championship with a solid 3-1 home win over Japan on Friday night.

The match was played in difficult conditions at Leganes' Butarque Stadium with temperatures at 35 degrees centigrade at kick-off.

Unsurprisingly, things didn't get off to a flying start as both sides looked to be trying to conserve some energy in the extreme heat, with Spain's Cata Coll being the first of the two goalkeepers called into action to cut out a cross ahead of Manaka Matsukubo.

The Japanese team suffered an early injury setback when left back Hikaru Kitagawa seemed to twist her knee on the dry playing surface and was replaced by Saori Takarada.

Japan took the lead in the 30th minute when Laia Aleixandri inexplicably gave the ball away to Mina Tanaka, who put the ball out wide, before receiving the cross, turning Maria Mendez and scoring with a smart shot that sent Coll the wrong way.

Claudia Pina came close to leveling with a shot that curled just wide of the post and the Barcelona forward was on hand to continue her excellent recent form when she made it 1-1 on the stroke of halftime.

Mariona Caldentey threaded a precise pass to Ona Batlle and her low ball was met by the onrushing Pina to score in the bottom corner.

Spain dominated the start of the second half with Pina and Vicky Lopez going close as the home team had Japan pinned deep into its own half.

Despite Spain's control, it took a bad defensive error for them to take the lead as Momoko Tanikawa misplayed the ball while trying to build from the back, giving it to Vicky Lopez, who made no mistake from eight meters out.

At the other end, Cata Coll made a good block as Tanaka received the ball in space, but shot too close to the Spain goalkeeper, while Mariona was unlucky to see her free kick bounce back off the Japan crossbar.

Mariona then got the assists as Spain made it 3-1 in the 88th minute, breaking the offside trap to pull the ball back for Athenea Del Castillo to score with her left foot.