In a tournament in which favourites such as England, France and Portugal have been disappointing, the Spain-Germany quarter-final on Friday (18.00, La1), of great tonnage, seems premature. So much so that the word “final”, as a definition of the clash, permeated all the previous appearances in Stuttgart on Thursday. It was pronounced by Ilkay Gündogan, it was pronounced by Luis de la Fuente, it is in the mind of anyone who has seen the football displayed by these teams, the most brilliant and the most consistent of the competition.
Those who have a good memory and remember that they are the two with the most Euro Cups in their cabinets, three each: the kings of the tournament. Or those who think about where they come from and how quickly they have risen. In the last major tournament, the World Cup in Qatar, Spain was eliminated in the round of 16 against Morocco after a sterile exercise of more than a thousand passes that produced a single shot on goal. Germany, immersed in a gigantic internal turmoil, did not even manage to get past the group stage. And yet, just a year and a half later, both have recovered strength based on the idea of their coaches. De la Fuente gave meaning to the pass and Nagelsmann brought back Kroos to reorder the chaos.
As if the match wasn’t enough, there’s also the possibility that it could be the last of the legendary German midfielder’s career, something that even the opposing coach is nostalgic about: “It’s a shame that he’s decided to quit football, because as a fan I’d like to keep watching him play,” said De la Fuente. Although his presence on the pitch this Friday is extremely difficult: “We had thought about tying his feet, but I don’t know if UEFA will let me,” he joked.
On the other hand, Nagelsmann said he had been looking for solutions to neutralise Rodri. The teams are very similar, from the structure in the centre to the threat from the wings.
As old members of the footballing nobility, they also have old grievances. The Mannschaft have not beaten Spain in a competitive competition since the 1988 European Championship, also in Germany. “I wasn’t at those games,” Nagelsmann said of the dark years. This time, as then, they will have the wind in their sails, something that Gündogan stressed: “It can be the decisive factor,” he said. “We want to create a situation where our fans support us and the opponent feels that they support us.”
He could also have recalled that Spain has never beaten the host of a major tournament. They didn’t. Neither did De la Fuente, who did introduce a nuance to the power of the home crowd: “Sometimes that pressure goes against the home team because they are very demanding. We are going to play the game as we have been doing so far, with joy, with confidence that we have a lot of football.” Like Germany. Both have enough reasons to feel that way. It is the final of kings.
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