XHTML tag syntax for rel=alternate hreflang

[ZachKline]

Is there a difference in the below two tags? My dev team is saying the first can be implemented (technical issue on their end), even though second is preferable, according to support.google.com, in the below two sitemap hreflang notations. My question is, will the first xhtml tag work for Google? Appreciate the input.

<xhtml:link href="<a href="http://store.hp.com/CanadaStore/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://store.hp.com/CanadaStore/" hreflang="en-ca" rel="alternate" /></xhtml:link href="<a>

<xhtml:link  href="<a href=" http:="" store.hp.com="" canadastore="" "="" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://store.hp.com/CanadaStore/" rel="alternate" hreflang="en-ca" /></xhtml:link >

[WebElaine]

In my experience a couple of spaces and the order of attributes don't matter at all. Google will understand just as easily and your developers won't have to jump through extra hoops.