As in the European Championship two years ago, the Red Furies won, causing a surprise. Deschamps showed up at the World Cup with two competitive teams, but in the end he returns home…
Deschamps showed up at the World Cup with two teams that could have fought to win it, but at the final in New York he will have to sit in the stands because de la Fuente’s Spain will be competing for the title. Not of Yamal laminaebecause unlike France which lived for a month clinging to the prowess of its star, Kylian Mbappe having barely reached the semi-final in Dallas, the Red Furies improved round after round as a team and as a team they dominated the match against the French.
There was no match, nothing of the balance of the semi-final that two years ago had paved the way to the European Championship for Spain. Tactical, technical and mental domination facilitated by Digne’s epochal foolishness which gave Yamal the game-breaking penalty after about twenty minutes. Maignan didn’t succeed in his usual maneuver to try to confuse his opponent, Oyarzabal had nerves of steel and from then on Spain played cat and mouse.
The doubling of Pedro Porro in the ascending phase of the recovery he sealed the result. France didn’t have a shot on target for 81 minutes, they were practically never dangerous, they lost all individual and departmental duels in midfield and had very little from the attacking stars, not just Mbappé whose frustration was evident at the end. On the other hand it all worked with a couple of due quotes: Cucurella is in form “Cannavaro 2006”that feeling of excessive physical power that destroys opponents, while Fabian Ruiz has shifted the balance in the middle despite not being the most flashy.
And then Dani Olmo, Buena, the central defenders and Rodri teaming up with Fabian Ruiz. An extraordinary performance, that of Spain, and almost without the obligation to mention Lamine Yamal who also had a couple of flashes of his own but who were not decisive and this is good news for his coach.
If England emerge victorious from the rematch of the Mano de Dios match, the re-edition of the 2024 European Championship final will be staged in New York on Sunday 19 July. Further confirmation of the absolute predominance of Old Continent football over the rest of the world. Were it Argentina’s Leo Messiinstead, we would have a confrontation between two teams both with enormous souls. Whatever happens, it will be a spectacle.
