EThe sweaty Spaniards sneaked off the pitch, annoyed and disenchanted, the cool Swedes were cheered by their fans and applauded themselves. With a highly disciplined, but equally unsightly catenaccio, the Scandinavians defied the title favorites on Monday in Seville with a highly disciplined, but just as unsightly catenaccio : 0 and made for long faces at the three-time European and World Cup champions of 2010. “We are of course angry because we didn’t score,” said Spain midfielder Koke. “We really fought, but unfortunately we weren’t very lucky.”
75 percent possession and a record-breaking pass record of 847: 107 were not enough for the Spaniards to win. Coach Luis Enrique’s team kept desperate at the defensive bulwark of the Scandinavians, who earned the point with a lot of heart and passion. “We gave 110 percent,” said defender Victor Lindelöf. “The Spaniards let the ball run very well, it was difficult to face their pressure. But we achieved a really good result. “
Spanish dominance and usury
However, the three-crown team around RB Leipzig’s Emil Forsberg and Werder Bremen’s Ludwig Augustinsson in front of 10,559 fans at the Estadio La Cartuja were also lucky because of the chances of the clearly superior Spaniards. In stoppage time, substitutes Gerard Moreno and Pablo Sarabia gave up two top-class opportunities to win. “The only thing missing was the goal,” Koke argued with the result. The Iberians meet Poland in the next group E group match. The Swedes, who first survived the group stage at a European Championship (2004), are up against Slovakia.
The hosts have not noticed anything from the corona excitement in the past few days. After a positive test with captain Sergio Busquets, who was missing, like the Swedes Dejan Kulusevski and Mattias Svanberg, part of the team was vaccinated shortly before the start of the tournament – apparently without any side effects.
The home side dominated the game from the start and pushed the passive Northern Europeans, who barely even crossed the middle line in the initial phase, deep into their half. The Spanish dominance in this phase was a bit like the 6-0 win against Germany in November 2020 in the Nations League.
After half an hour, the Spaniards had 80 percent possession. At the break, the balance of successful passes was 430: 69. Since the introduction of data collection in 1980, never before had a team played so many passes in one half in a European Championship match.
Only the gates were missing. Dani Olmo from the German championship runner-up RB Leipzig had the first chance to take the lead after a good quarter of an hour. The 23-year-old, who was the most conspicuous offensive player of his team in the first half, failed with his header at the strongly reacting Sweden goalkeeper Robin Olsen.
After that, Koke forgave twice from auspicious positions. But Alvaro Morata had the best opportunity: The striker, who was generally hapless, was suddenly completely free in front of Olsen after a positional error by the Swedes, but flicked the ball just wide of the goal.
The negligence in the conclusion almost took revenge shortly before the break, when the former Dortmund Alexander Isak caused a moment of shock. The Swedish attacker’s shot hit Spain defender Marcos Llorente’s shin, hit the post and then into the arms of goalkeeper Unai Simón, who had been given preference over the experienced David de Gea. On the other side, Olmo failed again at Olsen. So it went goalless into the cabins.
After the change, the momentum of the hosts flagged increasingly in humid and warm weather. The ball was now played more in width than in depth, which made work easier for the Swedish defense. Spanish chances were now rare.
Rather, the outsider was very close after a good hour of the tour. Isak danced out three opponents in the penalty area and served his strike partner Marcus Berg, but the former HSV professional missed miserably from close range. Shortly afterwards he had to give up his seat to Robin Quaison from Mainz. However, the Swedes no longer provided offensive accents in the final phase. For this, the Spaniards stepped up again, but could not reward themselves.
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