SUnai Simón already had a place in the ancestral gallery of Spanish football when the game was only just over. At that time, Spain’s newspapers were already publishing various lists of the biggest goalkeeper mistakes in the national jersey on their online pages. Simón found himself back in line with Luis Arconada, who slipped a harmless free kick in the 1984 final against France, with Andoni Zubizarreta (1998 World Cup against Nigeria) and Iker Casillas, who had the ball stolen from the Dutchman Robin van Persie in 2014.
Unlike his prominent predecessors, the 24-year-old Simón was spared a not entirely insignificant detail: his faux pas had no negative effects on the end result. Spain won 5-3 after extra time and for the first time since winning the title at the European Championship in 2012 they won an elimination game. Now the team of coach Luis Enrique is in the quarter-finals, on Friday they will meet Switzerland in St. Petersburg.
Progress was anything but natural after the unfortunate start against Croatia. Midfielder Pedri, the youngest player on the team at the age of 18, had played a back pass in Simón’s direction just before the center line. But the ball rolled over his foot into the goal. That looked like an involuntary comedy, only no Spaniard could laugh about it. Only the Czech Patrik Schick managed to score a goal from such a great distance. But that hit the right goal.
Mental strength from the goalkeeper
What followed was the emancipation of this young Spanish team. Undeterred, she continued, believed in herself and her style and scored three goals in a row. She could always rely on Simón, who saved several times with spectacular saves only in regular time and later in extra time. “Today Unai Simón was a role model for all young players who want to become a professional footballer one day. The message is: don’t worry about your mistakes. Focus on your goal. Of course that was a serious mistake on his part today. But he showed some fantastic saves afterwards, ”enthused coach Enrique.
The mental strength that Simón, the goalkeeper of Athletic Bilbao, exuded after his misstep, rubbed off on the team. Or was it the other way around? After the weak start to the tournament and the sometimes tough criticism in their own country, the Selección is getting better and faster. If she stuttered through the tournament primarily offensively at the beginning, she scored ten goals in the last two games.
In her intoxication, she did not let the Croatians catch up in the meantime, who equalized after a 3-1-1 in the last ten minutes. The momentum was clearly on their side at the beginning of the extension. All the more astonishing how calmly the little battle-tested Spaniards cope with the emotional odyssey when they supposedly lay like a boxer in the dust of the ring. “From the mat to the moon” was the headline of the newspaper Estadio Deportivo after the nerve-wracking ups and downs. “Epic” wrote “Sport” from Barcelona.
“Hopefully that has made us all grown up now,” said Luis Enrique when he felt a little more joking again. In general, the principles he interpreted as stubbornness are getting better and better. As before, Enrique held on to attacker Álvaro Morata, who was badly reviled in Spain. The striker thanked him with the goal to make it 4: 3.
From the wagon mentality that the coach has transferred to his players, they draw more and more strength. Ferrán Torres, the scorer to make it 3-1, said after the renewed offensive frenzy: “People have said that Spain can’t score goals. I never listened to that. If you work hard, you will eventually be rewarded. ”Another sentence that could easily come from Luis Enrique. The coach and team have finally become one. Exactly at the right time. For Spain, which had already been on the verge of losing after two games in the preliminary round, anything is now possible again at this European Championship.
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