Why SPAIN is THE MOST SCARY team at Euro 😱
The Spanish national team is SPECTACULAR!
If Furia Roja was seen by many as one of the Euro 2024 favourite before the start of the tournament, then after the first games they are already being described to be one of the biggest forces on par with Germany!
Today we will tell you why Spain can count on triumph, how Luis de la Fuente revolutionized Luis Enrique's team, and why Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams will definitely become the main stars of the ongoing Euro campaign!
Give us a like if you enjoy watching La Roja play and let's get into it! Here we go!
"SPAIN IS A NIGHTMARE!"
The all-new Spain squad is INCREDIBLE and completely UNPREDICTABLE for its opponents. We would even dare to admit that the current Furia Roja is nothing short of a NIGHTMARE for anyone they will face at the Euro.
What has changed since Luis Enrique's days? Well, a little spoiler: EVERYTHING!
A fundamentally different approach has been taken - no "thousand passes", no total control over the game, which was typical for Enrique's side. Now it's a national team named after Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams:
''Farewell to the game of a thousand passes, hello to Lamine and Nico's fast-paced football and the pressing that can destroy any competitors,'' that's how you can elegantly sum up the present-day Furia Roja.
The Telegraph, inspired by the Spain-Italy match, gave a very concise overview of De la Fuente's team's playing style: "Football, tiki-taka and speed!".
The German Der Spiegel, in turn, highlights the MAIN DISTINCTIVE FEATURE of this team: "They still follow a typical Spanish style of football with lots of passing and possession in the midfield, but the overall impression is totally different, since they feature two new players: Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams. The tactics are focused on their strengths."
After taking charge of the national team in 2022, Luis de la Fuente made a rather loud statement: "There is no team better than us!" he claimed.
And indeed, the first Euro matches demonstrated how ready this team is to fight for victory at the continental competition: "Spain is a nightmare!", says everyone in Germany, without exception, and no one wants to meet them in the knockout stages.
In fact, the opener against Croatia still raised some questions, because despite а rather convincing result, Furia Roja's advantage was not that dominant, as evidenced by the post-match xG metric. It felt like Spain was just more clinical...
...though the clash against Italy revealed a WHOLE NEW LEVEL and POTENTIAL of this squad.
"We have a style that strangles opponents!".
These words were said by Alvaro Morata after the victory over Italy and then repeated by Luciano Spalletti at a press conference a few minutes later:
"He's right, we all want to play like Spain...".
So what is this INNOVATIVE STYLE that shocked everyone at the European Championship?
In order to describe the success of Luis de la Fuente's game model as accurately as possible, we would like to share with you a statistical fact from Opta:
'Italy managed just four shots against Spain (one on target), their fewest in a game at the UEFA European Championship on record (since 1980)'
Here, for example, is Squadra Azzura's touch map in the first half, from which you can see how INSANE La Roja's PRESSING was. And here's another component of the game of the 3-time European champions: ball possession - the passing map against Italy shows how dominant Spain was even considering the factor of changing the style of play.
So, PRESSING and BALL POSSESSION with sharp lunges from Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams are the elements of Luis de la Fuente's side's success.
Moving on. Spain is the team that has the most tackles won at the ongoing Euro (82) and is also the team that commits the most fouls. Furia Roja has fouled 32 times after 2 opening rounds, which speaks volumes of their highly-intense style.
More than 50% of Spain's tackles and fouls happen in the opponent's half of the pitch, which is another secret of their progress.
"We have very clear ideas. The coach asks us to put pressure and look for the goal, to be more vertical," said Nico Williams at the start of the training camp.
It seems that the roster is getting better and better at mastering De la Fuente's game concepts with each passing match, given that in the first round, 4 big chances were allowed at Unai Simon's goal, but in the battle against the defending European champions, this indicator was reduced to 0!
The Spanish national team's results in the 'group of death' are shocking, to be honest: 6 points, 4 goals scored, 0 goals conceded - and that's after meetings versus Croatia and Italy. The fixture against Albania should only improve these stats!