• Luis Enrique "With the elbow even my nose was better"

  • The gymkhana of Spain From the sadness of Malta to the chop of Unai Simón

  • Busquets interview: "It is one of the best changing rooms in which I have lived"

  • Luis Enrique-Tassotti An elbow to innocence but without the intention of revenge

  • Opinion The usual Italy

  • Precedents The intense stories between Spain and Italy

On September 7, 2018,

Luis Enrique

took the floor in the press room of Wembley Stadium, the one that he could not step on Monday because this Monday he did it - to take the floor - from the team hotel. In this strange

European Championship

where fans cannot see their team and teams cannot train the day before on the stage of the match, everything is very strange. The fact is that that September 8, 2018, Luis Enrique took the floor before his debut as a national coach. "The objective is to evolve and stop being predictable," he said, and began a path, interrupted for a few months, which this Tuesday has a crucial season at Wembley. Not final, as the coach's project will continue, at least, until the World Cup in Qatar, but it is crucial.

"Evolve and stop being predictable." Beyond the debate on whether this team is more or less predictable, the truth is that it has evolved in these three years. In fact, the list he presented at the end of May is the most disruptive since he was coach, without

Sergio Ramos

and, by extension, without anyone from Real Madrid. From Barça there are only three (

Busquets

,

Alba

and

Pedri

) and from Atlético two (

Llorente

and

Koke

). The one that contributes the most is Manchester City, and the rest are scattered by teams inside and outside Spain. After the years of success, and the constant and unsuccessful attempts at revolution by

Del Bosque

and

Lopetegui

, Luis Enrique has arrived to return

Spain

to the semifinals of a great tournament nine years later.

And he has done it with a very personal bet, being the only visible head of a young and hungry group.

That, hunger, is what distinguishes this team from those presented by Spain in recent years.

Hunger and having built a superb human group, where guys like Busquets, who have seen them in all colors, are happy.

"It is not possible to do something great in a team sport if you think that individuals are more important than the team. We are more like a club team than a national team,"

said the Asturian coach yesterday.

32 games without losing

Along the way, some numbers that admit all kinds of readings. Counting this last stage of 17 games with the Asturian, Spain has only lost one, it is true, against Ukraine (1-0), but it is also true that they have only won six, drawing 10, including four of the five games of this Eurocup (within 90 minutes). He has only beaten Slovakia in this tournament, but the fact is that, with that balance, he has been one step away from the final. Nothing distracts footballers from that goal.

Far from thinking that the work has already been done, something legitimate given the previous expectations, the group is convinced that there are two victories left for that.

Italy

, a rival that has accumulated 32 games without losing to

Mancini

, has dazzled in this European Championship, but the

loss

of

Spinazzola

and the strength of the group, delivered without delay to a common collective good and far from the divinities of other times, not too distant They make Spain believe in the pass.

Italy and Spain have met 37 times, with a balance of 11 wins, 15 draws and 11 losses for the national team.

The recent stories of both are not understood without the memory of the penalties in 2008, the final of 2012 or the round of 16 of 2016.

The first battle will be to know who will have the ball

Luis Enrique

The road, then, of 2018 here has had all the imaginable edges and has shown the heterodoxy of a coach unable to go unnoticed. Of the starting eleven that he presented that September 8, 2018 at Wembley for his debut (by the way, Spain won 1-2), only

De Gea

, Busquets and

Thiago

They are in this call, and only the Barça midfielder is the starter.

It is not an exaggeration to write, then, that Luis Enrique has made transitions over his own transition.

He has been modifying calls and initial eleven (he has not repeated any time in this European Championship) to reach these semifinals, where he will step on the grass that saw him debut almost three years ago.

"I like Dragon Kahn", he also said then, referring to the vertigo that could cause him to debut against such a team in such a stadium.

What will the rival do?

That day he promised that his team would want to be the protagonist, that he would want to have the ball and attack all the time and that, when he lost it, they would run a lot to get it back.

And he has fulfilled it, no matter how much the bet admits of debate, and even the coach himself would like the rivals not to get so far back to play with fewer touches, in faster transitions.

Therein lies the main doubt.

The coach maintains that almost all teams change their way of playing against Spain.

Italy, with Mancini, wants the ball and wants to attack.

However, in the locker room they suspect that this Tuesday they will move into a team retracted in their field, looking for the counterattack.

"That will be the first battle of the match, to know who will have the ball," says Luis Enrique, who is looking towards the final like everyone else, hungry.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • sports

  • Euro 2020

  • Spain Soccer Team

  • Italy Soccer Team

  • Luis Enrique

  • David De Gea

  • Sergio Busquets

  • Vicente del Bosque

  • Julen lopetegui

  • Pedri

  • Jordi Alba

  • Marcos Llorente placeholder image

  • Sergio Ramos

EurocopaSpain survives itself in an unforgettable match

Euro 2021The other earthquakes in Spain: from the Cañizares colony to the Torbe case

EurocopaEspaña wants to be Marlon Brando: "We are impressive"

See links of interest

  • 2021 business calendar

  • Home THE WORLD TODAY