From our special correspondent in Milan,

Luis Enrique is the kind of man who doesn't give a damn about the number of enemies he has on his back, but if he ever looks for a famous ally, let him know that Antoine Griezmann "adores" him and often watches sa Roja's matches, as the Frenchman admitted in a press conference on Friday at the Torino stadium. “Spain have a very good team, which presses quite high. They manage to come up with a great game and they have great results. “We would have liked to revive the Atlético de Madrid player on the issue, but it's the big game of confs: sometimes you raise your hand like Hermione Granger, in vain. Suddenly, we will remain on the idea that Luis Enrique pleases our national Grizou, a small anomaly in the ocean of tensions where the Spanish coach has been sailing for months, who pays little more attention than that.

With, all the same, a certain propensity for acidity, of which the former Barça and Real has yet offered a good sample to an Iberian colleague when he questioned him on his contested list for the Final Four of the Nations League before the semi-final against Italy, in particular because of the absence of a pure 9 and the surprising presence of the rookie Gavi. “I don't know anything about it, because I don't read anything, I don't listen to anything, I don't watch anything about the selection. For me, this list is a list like any other, with 23 players who have my full confidence. Time will tell if I was wrong or not. Why am I not reading anything? Because I have a lot more information about the selection than any reporter. I know the players personally, I know what I'm asking them. There is nothing,in anything I can read that may interest me. "

Nagging grudge

There is obviously an element of lie.

Luis Enrique had already done the blow during the Euro.

The question then concerned an interview with Alvaro Morata, which the coach said he had not read before being curiously precise on the subject for someone who had not revised his files.

There is, between the two camps, a barely concealed hatred, which dates from the time when a journalist had disclosed before the time the transfer of Enrique, player time, from Real Madrid to Barça.

To say that the Spanish coach has a stubborn grudge would be a no-brainer when you consider that this is an event dating back to 1996 that was far surpassed four years later by Figo's betrayal in the opposite direction.

There was indeed a lull of circumstance, as if to thank the Spanish press for its modesty when Luis Enrique helplessly witnessed his daughter Xana's lost fight against osteosarcoma in the summer of 2019.

Return of the "chef's hat" and new Xavi

But the truce did not survive the list, devoid of Real Madrid players, of the coach for Euro 2021. A decision that goes badly in the first months in a bipolar country which will end up all the same going to the evidence:

“We must stop with the theme of the Madridistas in selection. Benzema is not Spanish, the journalist Miguel Martin Talavera recently quipped at the microphone of the Cadena Ser. Nacho was not at the level at the start of the season. The debate that needs to be asked is that of the absence of Spanish players at Real Madrid. "

Even if the supposed pro Catalan favoritism, embodied by the summons of the prepubescent Gavi, 17 years old and seven games at Barça, made the Bernabeu bitch. His masterclass against Italy for his first with La Roja gives Enrique reason for the moment, praising after the victory at San Siro. “He plays as if he were in his living room, it's totally abnormal to have a player with his personality and this game at 17 years old. He's someone who plays between the lines, who never loses the ball. He has a lot of technical qualities, physical qualities too. He is the future of our national team, but also his present, as we have seen. I'm happy for him because he was playing against his idol, Marco Verratti. "

Luis Enrique: "Gavi's role model is Marco Verratti, so I told him to watch him from start to finish."

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- 𝙻𝚎 𝙱𝚊𝚛𝚌̧𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎🇸🇳 (@MessiFode) October 6, 2021

Times are rather happy for the Spanish coach, rewarded by politically not obvious choices. With players from all walks of life (Real Sociedad, Athletic Bilbao, Villarreal but also Sporting or Braga, in Portugal), Luis Enrique has rebuilt a losing team, not unlike that of the great conquests of 2008-2012 by its capacity to take the ball hostage. 75% possession against Italy, European champion, it borders on indecency, even if the specter of sterile baballe tampering, evidenced by the four shots on target in the same match, continues to hover over La Roja. As against Belgium and more, the stake will therefore be for Didier Deschamps to wean his opponent from balloons. “Whatever, warns Antoine Griezmann, we know how to play with the ball, we know how to defend low,we know how to do everything. »Like what, it is not only Luis Enrique who knows how to be annoying.

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