Enrique and De Boer bring back memories of Barcelona in a friendly Spain and the Netherlands
Coaches Luis Enrique and Frank de Boer relive their memories at FC Barcelona when Spain and the Netherlands meet today in a friendly match.
Seventeen years after the end of their simultaneous career with the Spanish club, Enrique and De Boer will meet as opponents this time at the "Johan Cruyff" stadium, who embodied the identity of playing the orange national team and the Barcelona team.
This is the first match between the two teams in five years, knowing that Spain won the 2010 World Cup final in extra time, before the Netherlands took revenge in part, 5-1 in the first round of the 2014 World Cup. Enrique was born on the eighth of May 1970, and seven days later Frank saw the light with His twin is former star Ronald.
They both played 122 games for Barcelona during the period that the former Dutch defender spent between 1999 and 2003 in Catalonia.
The new Netherlands coach (two draws against Bosnia and Italy in the Nations League), who replaced Ronald Koeman, who was moving to Barcelona in particular, loved to play the beautiful offensive in his era with Barcelona.
He was distinguished by his toughness and physical strength, and loved building attacks from the back thanks to his skill with his left foot.
He was a good playable reader, hungry to win and boasted of impressive Dutch confidence.
The same is true for Luis Enrique, who is returning to supervise "La Roja" after a sad pause that witnessed the death of his sick child, Khanna.
He is trying to convey his relatively successful experience with Barcelona (2014-2017) two years after the departure of the great coach Pep Guardiola (2008-2012).
If the meeting with the Spanish national team will make de Boer happy, but his previous confrontation with the Iberian team does not bode well.
He was with Philip Coco as assistant coach Bert Van Marwijk in the 2010 World Cup final, which was settled by Andres Iniesta in the 117th minute of Spain, who won the only world title in their history in Johannesburg, South Africa.
De Boer was also a candidate to lead Barcelona in 2013 to succeed Tito Villanova, who died of a cancerous disease.
The match witnesses a confrontation between a player and his current teammates in Barcelona, when he leads the young Franky de Jong in the center of the Netherlands, in front of his comrades in the middle of Blaugrana, like Sergio Busquets or Sergi Roberto, while the attacking midfielder Anso Fati, who achieved a wonderful start to Barcelona, is absent from central Spain Before he suffered a severe knee injury last week, it would keep him out of action for about four months.
Spain is top of Group D of First Level in the European Nations League, with seven points, one point behind Germany and Ukraine.
You will play in the fifth round on Saturday in Switzerland, then host Germany on the 17th of this month, noting that the champion of each group reaches the semi-finals.
As for the Netherlands, it ranks third in Group A (5 points), two points behind leaders Poland and one point behind Italy II.
Bosnia will host on Sunday, before coming to Poland in the last round on the 18th of this month.
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