BarcelonaThe most diverse Spanish team in history has culminated in Berlin a simply perfect European Championship. On paper he didn’t have the best coach. Nor any reputed expert scorer or any top-level European central defender. However, he has played better than anyone else and has overcome all the obstacles that have been put in front of him to achieve a glory that is as unexpected as it is meritorious. The success comes through the big door: with a lot of victories (seven in seven games) and the added pride of having eliminated the host team (Germany) and the current runner-up of the world (France) in the most demanding part of the table ). In the final, Luis de la Fuente’s team got rid of the imposing England, who will have to keep chewing to translate good players into winning teams. Nico Williams and Mikel Oyarzabal were the performers of a magical night at the Berlin Olympics.

The triumph of the Red most cosmopolitan that has ever been known cannot be understood without the footballing phenomenon called to mark an era. Lamine Yamal’s European Championship will be remembered for ages. With just 17 years of age, a boy’s face and brackets in the teeth, this prodigy raised on the margins has left a continent speechless with selected plays and an anthological goal in the semi-finals. He has also hooked dozens of Blaugrana (and Catalan) fans to a cause they never thought would get them off their seats. Never had such a young player been so decisive in a national team championship. There are no precedents, not even Messi or Pelé, that can be compared in terms of precocity to the winger sculpted at La Masia and promoted by Xavi Hernández this season at Barça. In this Sunday’s final, he only missed the goal. He had two chances to score. It was not, however, to manufacture what opened the can.

The script of the match did not surprise any of those present. As it had done in the previous duels, England came out to hand over possession to the opponent. The priority of Gareth Southgate’s men, a manager criticized for his unattractive proposal, was to protect Pickford with two lines of four players in his own field. The British coach only exempted Foden and Kane from this thankless job without the ball against a Spain forced to find spaces where there were none. Deprived of any interior corridor, the Spaniards had to open up the game on the wings, where they ran into Walker and Shaw, two very reliable scorers, again and again. Before the break, only Morata managed to trouble the opposing goal in an isolated action that Stones rejected for a corner. Fabián, Olmo and Rodri never dared from mid-range, while Lamine Yamal and Williams saved dynamite for the restart.

The best would come in the second half

Despite the unidirectionality of the plot, England ended the first half with the only try between the three posts in favor. It came on a set piece play that Foden wanted to materialize at the second post. Manchester City’s talented midfielder found a way to put Unai Simón through, but the Athletic Club goalkeeper, very confident whenever he doesn’t have to take risks when the ball comes out from the back, neutralized the ambush.

Going through the changing rooms was bad business for the English. One would have thought otherwise seeing that De la Fuente had to replace Rodri Hernández, his best midfielder, due to injury. But it was Spain, in an action of pure electricity in the three-quarter area, that finally shook the final. The 1-0 was born on the right side of the red team, where the veteran of prototypical Spanishness Carvajal and the teenager Z of African origin Lamine Yamal coexist. The Madrid full-back found the Barça winger between the lines, who drove across the balcony of the area and took advantage of Morata and Dani Olmo’s dribbles to create an ideal assist for his friend Nico Williams. Pickford was unable to save the Navarrese attacker’s cross ball, who celebrated the target with anger, aware that the final could be decided in specific moments like the one he managed to send into the opponent’s net. READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>

Far from making England react, the momentum fueled by Williams’ goal opened spaces at the back of Southgate’s scheme. This scenario was candy for the Spanish attackers, who had the verdict at their feet through Dani Olmo (48′) and Lamine Yamal (65′). In the opposite goal, Bellingham tried to respond in self-made actions, none as clear as the one that Pickford denied Lamine Yamal with a great save. But just because the English looked dead didn’t make them a defeated team. No way. It had happened more times in the Eurocopa and it happened again in the final: they pulled a piece of genius out of nowhere to save their necks. They did it thanks to a lost duel by Cucurella that ended with a ball on the front for the repulsive Palmer, who found the net with a great strong and placed shot, impossible for Unai Simón.

With 1-1 on the scoreboard, and despite the majority decibels in the English bench, Spain did not wrinkle at all. In fact, in the 81st minute, Lamine Yamal was about to put De la Fuente’s men ahead again with a definition that Pickford again ruined with a huge pull. An opportunity that showed that the Red he was playing better than England and that was the prelude to the action that, in the 87th minute, redeemed Marc Cucurella from the mistake that led to Palmer’s goal. The young Maresmen assisted brilliantly so that Oyarzabal, in position nine, made the definitive 2-1. With no time to finish believing the feat, the Spaniards consumed any extension option without suffering. A fully deserved triumph for a generation to beat who arrived at the Euros in the skin ofoutsider. And that he has a minor, the pride of Barcelona and one of the humblest neighborhoods in Catalonia, as the main spearhead.

Spain: Unai Simon; Carvajal, Le Normand (Nacho, 83′), Laporte, Cucurella; Rodri (Zubimendi, 46′), Fabian; Lamine Yamal (Mikel Merino, 89′), Dani Olmo, Nico Williams; i Morata (Oyarzabal, 68′). Coach: Luis de la Fuente. England: Pickford; Walker, Stones, Guéhi; Rice, Mainoo (Palmer, 70′), Saka, Shaw; Bellingham, Foden (Toney, 89′); i Kane (Watkins, 61′). Coach: Gareth Southgate. Goals: 1-0 Nico Williams (47′), 1-1 Palmer (73′), 2-1 Oyarzabal (87′). Grossing targets: Kane (25′), Dani Olmo (31′), Stones (53′), Watkins (90+2′). Red Targets: Cap. Referee: François Letexier (France). Stadium: Berlin Olympic Stadium.

2024-07-14 20:53:29
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