• Victory against Kosovo Spain suffers first and smiles later

  • Selection Another blow from a secondary, the sweet routine of Ferran and the relief of Luis Enrique: "It has been a childbirth"

  • Classification The group of Spain

Last Wednesday, at the modest Fadil Vokrri stadium (perhaps the only one in the world that has a nightclub inside, although this is not the case), the even more modest Kosovo team, number 115 in the FIFA ranking, shot the team Spanish seven times (in a metaphorical sense, it was only missing). Four of them did not find a goal, but three did, and they forced

Unai Simón

to make three saves, two of them of great merit, to save the result, which at that time was a meager 0-1. "Mistakes have to be accepted, we have made many",

Luis Enrique

resigned himself.

, who repeated the speech heard after the game against Sweden, the one that accepts as part of the game that his bet has virtues and defects, and that if among the virtues is that he always generates more than the rival, among the defects appear imbalances that leave the rival a clear path to the goal.

The Asturian said in that same press conference, in the one before Wednesday, that no team wins four games in a row. It is not true. With their eyes set only on the qualifying phase for Qatar, without counting the friendlies or the European Championship, there are two teams that do achieve that record. England has won five consecutive games, while Belgium is in four. It is true that no more reaches those four, but it is also true that Spain, in this same phase, has won only two in a row (against Georgia and Kosovo both times). In fact,

Luis Enrique's team, counted the 21 crashes since his return, his best streak lasts exactly that: two games

.

And that is something difficult to manage for those who have spent 28 years without losing a qualifying phase and for those who have been in the final stages of the major tournaments since 1992 only forced a play-off (for the 2006 World Cup).

But, to understand the difficulties this team is having in the defensive phase, perhaps the best data is that

only in nine of the last 21 games has it managed to leave a clean sheet

.

Apart from the fact that playing as a visitor costs them a lot (they have won two of their last six trips), it is almost impossible for Spain to prevent not only that they score a goal, but also that they approach the goal.

Positioning

All analysts point out that the problem is not specifically in the four defenses.

It is in the positioning of the team where problems arise

. Spain always comes out with the ball played and their sides go up immediately to favor a passing line, an exit. What happen? That when a midfielder makes a mistake, such as poor control or poor delivery, between the rival forwards and the goal are only the centrals and the goalkeeper. And of course, the centrals running backwards, without spatial references many times. They are mistakes, and it is enough to remember Switzerland's goal in the Eurocup or that of Sweden last Thursday.

The great teams do leave a clean sheet many more times in this qualifying phase

: Italy and Germany, in five of the six games, England in four, Belgium in three ...

In their group, Spain has played with three of the teams that attack the least.

Greece (79), Georgia (83) and Kosovo (109) generate little (Spain has attempted 258 attacks), but they have generated a lot for Spain.

Georgia fired five shots at Unai Simón's goal in the first leg.

Sweden, in Stockholm, six.

Spain always shoots and attacks more than the opposite, that is obvious, but thinking about what is to come (the next game will be against Italy on October 6 in Milan, in the semi-final of the League of Nations) perhaps it would be convenient not to assume this situation with the naturalness that the coach did before taking on Kosovo.

“If they push us over, they'll catch us.

And sometime they will surpass us, "he

said.

It is your bet.

And it will not change.

The numbers

5 goals.

Those who have conceded the selection in the six games they have been in this qualifying phase for Qatar.

14 auctions.

Those who have made their three rivals in the three September games (7 Kosovo, 6 Sweden and 1 Georgia).

86 attempts.

In return, the selection has finished that number of times in the six games of this phase.

8 points.

Difference between scored and conceded, first tiebreaker criterion.

Sweden is +4.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • sports

  • Spain Soccer Team

  • Luis Enrique

  • HBPR

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