Spain started this first phase of the Nations a little slowly with a draw in Belgrade, after the great party of the Euro Cup, and that was one of the few things that was allowed. She took flight again and against Denmark she closed this first leg of the competition as first in the group after a match in which she first played and showed that everything works in De la Fuente’s ecosystem, and then endured the final push by the Danes. La Roja led Copenhagen with goals from Oyarzabal and Ayoze, dancing to the sound of Dani Olmo, who always found space and time for everyone.
1
Kasper Schmeichel, Jannik Vestergaard, Joachim Andersen, Alexander Bah, Victor Kristiansen (Patrick Dorgu, min. 86), Christian Nørgaard (Mikkel Damsgaard, min. 60), Morten Hjulmand, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Christian Eriksen (Andreas Skov Olsen, min .78), Albert Grønbæk (Gustav Isaksen, min. 60) and Rasmus Højlund (Kasper Dolberg, min. 78)
2
David Raya, Dani Vivian, Marc Cucurella, Pedro Porro, Aymeric Laporte, Mikel Oyarzabal, Mikel Merino (Pedri, min. 79), Álex Baena (Fabián Ruiz, min. 61), Dani Olmo (Nico Williams, min. 69), Martín Zubimendi (Marc Casadó, min. 69) and Ayoze Pérez (Álvaro Morata, min. 68)
Goals
0-1 min. 14: Oyarzabal. 0-2 min. 57: Ayoze Pérez. 1-2 min. 83: Gustav Isaksen
Referee Rade Obrenovic
yellow cards
Christian Nørgaard (min. 32), Oyarzabal (min. 73), Hojbjerg (min. 78), Morata (min. 89), Joachim Andersen (min. 89), Gustav Isaksen (min. 91)
In front of me was a new enigma. Denmark had a new coach, he had a different air from the one he showed a month ago in Murcia, against a team that does not change, regardless of the players that De la Fuente puts on the field. On the opposite bench, Brian Riemer had gotten rid of the past defense of five and contemplation. The Danes stood much higher up, trying to thwart Spain’s exit, and when they recovered they looked for the goal without intermediate steps. But they had a hard time stealing against an elusive team. De la Fuente’s machinery works with extremely high precision and lightning-fast speed.
Neither Carvajal, nor Le Normand, nor Rodri, nor Fabián were there, but the ball was flying anyway, and Porro, Vivian, Zubimendi and Merino escaped from the trap that the Danes were trying to set up in Raya’s domain. The Spaniards appeared, played and evaporated. The rival was chasing volatile shadows. And a little further on, Dani Olmo always found paths between the lines. Sometimes at the first touch; others, escapist with the dribble. It was the universal connector of the equipment. The Blaugrana, who navigates these busy areas with formidable poise and clairvoyance, found the help of Ayoze there, on this occasion serving as a striker, with Morata recovering from the effects of his blow to the head last week. .
Spain escaped the touch or with long balls, but when it was even more damaging was when it recovered when Denmark came out, with that high pressure so characteristic of its brilliant Euro Cup. Merino blocked an escape route very close to Schmeichel’s area and instantly transformed the vertigo of the pressure into calm. He left everything on hold in that hot area until Ayoze appeared to his right. And they accelerated again. The Canarian saw the arrival of Oyarzabal, gave him the ball and the captain hit the net.
With the same intention and the same general plan, Spain has many ways to find your way to the area. He did not have Lamine Yamal or Nico Williams on the field, the daggers of the Euro Cup, but Olmo had the map to find ways inside. The second goal came that way. The Blaugrana turned in the middle and put a clean ball behind the defense to which Ayoze ran, beating Schmeichel with his left foot.
That space behind Vestergaard was especially promising. Pedro Porro recovered from a mistake of his own and automatically aimed a long throw at that field, in which Ayoze once again took advantage of his acceleration. He was left alone with the goalkeeper, and he thought and thought until he decided on a subtle Vaseline, so much so that he didn’t even get up and meekly left along the baseline.
Spain did not want to lift its foot. To try to maintain the revolutions, De la Fuente brought in Fabián, Nico Williams, Morata and Marc Casadó, who made his international debut when Zubimendi sat on the grass and pointed out the discomfort he felt in his right thigh. But Denmark added more coal to the boiler.
La Roja had everything under control, except for the enthusiasm of Isaksen, who left the goal trembling with a shot against the post and then collected a prize when his voracity surpassed the confidence of Fabián and Raya. The PSG midfielder tried to lean on the goalkeeper to get out, without realizing that the Dane was moving behind him. He swiped the ball to Raya, scoring and shaking up the final minutes. Denmark closed the night riding on the momentum of Isaksen and compromising Raya, who deflected a dangerous shot from Olsen when time was running out. Spain held on, finished first in the group, and will play the quarterfinal second leg at home in March.