Sport

Spain have the tools to win the Euros - it's how they use them

Brendan Crossan

Brendan Crossan

Brendan is a sports reporter at The Irish News. He has worked at the media outlet since January 1999 and specialises in GAA, soccer and boxing. He has been the Republic of Ireland soccer correspondent since 2001 and has covered the 2002 and 2006 World Cup finals and the 2012 European Championships

Spain's Alvaro Morata appears to be hitting form
Spain's Alvaro Morata appears to be hitting form Spain's Alvaro Morata appears to be hitting form

THE BOOT ROOM

COMPILING a list of your all-time best players is a purely self-indulgent, subjective exercise. For what it’s worth, Xavi and Andres Iniesta would feature in my top five.

Then again, if you include Xavi and Iniesta where does that leave Sergio Busquets? They’re all in the same world class bracket.

I remember landing in Poland for the 2012 European Championships with the rest of the press pack and picking up accreditation at the fabulous Poznan stadium.

There was incredible excitement ahead of the tournament but also a deep sense of trepidation that Croatia, Spain and Italy would wipe the floor with Giovanni Trapattoni’s Republic of Ireland team. And they duly did.

From an Irish perspective, Euro 2012 was a thoroughly miserable experience.

There were no Ibaraki moments to get us off our seats, no punching the air, no last-gasp equalisers. Nothing.

Just a tired group of players with too many injuries to absorb that stopped the Irish from being even slightly competitive in Poznan and Gdansk.

Even amid the match-day misery in Poland, it was one of the greatest privileges of this profession to watch the Spanish play.

The Irish couldn’t get near Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets that night and lost the game 4-0. It could have been double that figure.

While there’ll never again be another magical star like Lionel Messi, as far as team-work, technique, touch, telepathy, aesthetics goes on a football pitch, nothing will eclipse what the Spanish produced in Gdansk against the Irish nine years ago.

Perched impossibly high in the Gdansk Stadium, Xavi, Iniesta, David Silva and Busquets floated around the pitch, smoothly inter-changing positions; it was as if the ball was tied to their feet by a piece of string.

This is what Tiki-taka looked like in the flesh. It was mind-blowing.

I don’t remember a misplaced midfield pass.

It was a truly awesome experience to watch the Spanish who were at their peak of their powers in 2012, better and more assured than their breakthrough year in 2008 and the jittery moments they endured during their victorious assault on the World Cup in 2010.

Alex Ferguson’s depiction of the Pep Guardiola’s team - which made up the cerebral nucleus of the Spanish national team at the time - was so apt in that it was like playing football on a carousel.

The Irish were left dizzy and punch-drunk by the end and Spain would go on to retain their European title, thrashing the Italians by the same comprehensive score-line in the final.

Of course, the wheels had to come off at some point - and they did spectacularly at the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil.

Euro 2016 wasn't much better for the Spanish and by the time the 2018 World Cup finals were played in Russia, Tiki-taka was being played at a walking pace.

It wasn't that Tiki-taka football had become obsolete - the same group of players simply couldn't sustain the intensity levels required to execute it.

Its famous practitioners had become tired.

To date, the Euro 2020 finals have been an enjoyable watch - a tournament laced with great goals, great games, albeit some boring ones and teams that don’t risk a lot, but there has been enough drama for a bulging highlights reel.

Luis Enrique’s Spain team have been the proverbial head-wrecker during these finals – full of technical ability, arguably the best in winning back possession high up the field, but sometimes passing the ball for passing’s sake.

Even though they failed to put away Sweden and Poland in the group stages, there was still plenty to admire about them – and they finally found their ‘mojo’ in the final third of the field to put away Slovakia by scoring five goals.

Enrique has shown admirable patience with Alvaro Morata, the big Juventus striker who had been struggling desperately in front of goal up until his incredible strike that finally killed off Croatia’s resistance in a knock-out encounter that produced outrageous entertainment.

That manager’s patience could well pay massive dividends as the Spanish try to navigate a way past the obdurate Swiss in this evening’s quarter-final.

If Morata has been liberated by his thunderous strike in Copenhagen, Spain are in a good place as the tournament nears its climax.

But it’s not just Morata’s form that is elemental to Spain’s fate; they need to utilise the passing brilliance of left-sided midfielder Pedri.

The Barcelona teenager has been one of the players of the tournament, and the penny appears to be dropping with his midfield counterparts.

Koke, one of Diego Simeone’s reliable foot soldiers for so long at Atletico Madrid, has displayed everything that is wrong with Spain.

Too many of his passes are passive and of no consequence.

Enrique’s team already has a defensive midfield pivot – with Rodri more recently handing these duties over to fit-again Busquets – but Koke has been doubling up and acting as a second pivot, spinning out of the attacking pocket on the right side and taking impetus away from Spain's play.

That had been the case with Koke up until the 15th minute of their second round clash with Croatia. Up to that point in the game, the midfielder had 21 possessions - 14 of which were either backward or sideward passes.

There is a great reluctance on Koke’s part to leave his zone and get ahead of the ball. But after a quarter of an hour, Koke gambled, broke into the opposition penalty area and was found with a brilliant threaded pass by Pedri.

The finish, however, didn’t match the approach play. But it is those kinds of runs from deep that give Spain a much-needed added dimension, especially in initially trying to break teams down.

Pedri’s pass to Koke was one clear way of beating the ‘low block’ of the opposition, which they’ll undoubtedly face today against Switzerland.

For Spain to go further in the competition, it may mean Koke – or whoever Enrique picks on the right side – seeing Pedri in possession and giving him the option of a forward pass and Morata providing the decoy runs and creating the space.

This Spanish team will never reach the heights of Xavi and co - but Enrique's squad has the tools to win Euro 2020.

It's how they use them now.