1-2 in La Romareda Narration and statistics
Group 2 Results and classification
As happened two years ago, in the previous qualifying phase of the League of Nations, Spain is forced to beat the group favorites on the last day.
On that occasion they played it at home, in Seville, against Germany, and it ended as it did (6-0).
This time the challenge seems greater, since the match will be away from home (next Tuesday in Braga) and Portugal does not seem to be going to disconnect as that Germany did.
The draw is not worth Spain because they were not able to win against Switzerland, a good team, go ahead, and because the Portuguese team did prevail in their visit to the Czech Republic.
Spain have not lost at home for four years, also with
Luis Enrique
on the bench that time, against England in Seville.
In Zaragoza he did it again, probably in an unfair way, but he did it again.
It should not have been a good idea to anger the Swiss, who were already 'warm' the day before due to the poor conditions that La Romareda presents in all its facilities, also in the locker rooms.
To make matters worse, the sprinklers went off in the middle of the Swiss warm-up while Spain had already returned to the locker room.
Incredulous, they addressed everyone they saw with a Federation shield to ask them to turn off the irrigation.
It was not possible and they held on for a couple of minutes until it stopped.
That ended up angering what is otherwise a very good team.
The team coached by
Murat Yakin
is a team that plays closely together, presses well, runs with purpose and is physically very powerful, as was evident in
Manuel Akanji
's goal .
Luis Enrique had initially bet on a surprise.
He left on the bench what had been his starting center forward, and indisputable, for many months, to put
Marco Asensio
as a false nine (47 minutes so far this season with Madrid).
Escorted from the outside by two regulars like
Pablo Sarabia
and
Ferran Torres
, the team was quite recognizable, with the Barça trio in midfield.
However, the machine did not carburize.
It was one of those thick nights that Spain dispatches from time to time, which is not good at attacking static defenses (almost no team is good at that) and suffers when they are pressed up high with the momentum that the Swiss spent .
Luis Enrique's team did not shoot between the three posts in the entire first half.
He did not force
Yann Sommer
to catch any ball that was on its way to his goal.
If anything, a shot from Sarabia or Ferran that ended up in a corner after bouncing off an opponent.
Switzerland, on the other hand, had another fairly clear option aside from the goal, which came from a corner.
Akanji finished off very easily almost in the small area, a situation that seems unlikely in a match of this level.
Apart from that success, Switzerland had a one-on-one with
Xherdan Shaqiri that
Unai Simón
resolved
as best he could.
After the goal, the visitors definitely felt comfortable and played more and more with the scoreboard and over time in the face of the desperation of a stuck Spain where
Sergio Busquets
failed to connect with the people in front of him.
Faced with a good defensive system, the selection suffered, and that executed almost the entire manual.
Passes inside to get the ball out again, changes of orientation, circulation from one side to the other... But there was no way.
The game cried out for players capable of unbalancing one-on-one.
Asensio is one of them, and with a wonderful turn, a perfect drive and a great pass, he left
Jordi Alba
alone with Sommer.
It was the draw, which however did not last at all on the palate of the Zaragoza fans, enthusiastic despite what they were seeing.
Three minutes later, at another corner, not one, but two Swiss made contact with the ball inside the box.
The second of them, Embolo, put his team ahead almost unintentionally.
As the thing was still imbalances, Luis Enrique changed all of the above.
Borja Iglesias
,
Yeremi Pino
and
Nico Williams
entered
, the first and third debutants.
The two extremes began to face each other and Spain enjoyed chances.
Not very clear, true, but enough to have tied.
A ball from Borja that no one got to, a shot from Llorente... In reality, for classification purposes, with the victory of Portugal, it did not matter to draw or lose, but of course, everyone knows that it is not the same .
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Jordi Alba
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Marco Asensio
Luis Enrique