Do you guys still want Italy to be knocked out or not?
If I, Talista, get unhappy and don’t play, who knows, Italy might get stupidly lucky and actually get past us.
Just then, the Spain coach came over: "Talista, you’re still a substitute for this match, but I’ll probably give you three to five more minutes... Happy now? You deserve it, keep up the good work!"
Talista had a face full of smiles, cunning as hell!
The Spanish coach almost threw up.
This old face, who believes he’s twenty-six? Isn’t this forty-six?
After the coach left, Talista angrily crushed a can of sports drink.
Another damn substitute!
F*ck!
...
On the evening of August 8th, France, Toulouse Stadium.
The Italy vs Spain match officially kicked off.
On Italy’s side, Pellegrini’s position was clear, he edged out Finger.
At the defensive midfield position, Lam was brought on.
Because Spain’s possession play is very strong, Lam’s positional sense is good, so he won’t be easily dragged out. But he’s also fast, able to expand his interception range. Tactically speaking, he’s more suitable for this match than Drake.
And on Spain’s side.
The front three tridents are made up of midfielder and attacking midfielder Valle Ortiz from Barcelona, Atletico Madrid’s main central forward Fernando Domenguez, and Real Madrid’s main winger Enriquez.
The midfield trio consists of Atletico Madrid midfielder Fabian Corall, Barça defensive midfielder Levi Burgos, and Barça midfield brain Esia Hernandez.
The backline from left to right are Barça’s left-back Hoddy Aw, Barça’s central defender Sacha Mebarak, Real Madrid’s central defender Sergio Rubio, and Real Madrid’s right-back Daniel Sánchez.
Real Madrid’s goalkeeper, Igor Luis.
This is almost a Spain team cobbled together from Real Madrid and Barça, with two Atletico players added.
The essence of La Liga domestically, basically all here.
Therefore, it is actually quite normal for Talista not to secure a starting position.
Who do you think you are?
These guys have been together all along, and you’re expecting to become a main player right after moving in, how’s that possible?
But this match was not as exciting as everyone imagined.
The entire first half, both sides combined had less than three shots!
It was a soporific battle!
Spain’s possession rate was as high as sixty-three percent, but effective attacks were few.
There were instead as many as three offsides.
This reflects some issues the team has with integration.
On this, the Barça players shook their heads.
Domenguez still doesn’t understand the truth, what a waste just now with those few beautiful through passes.
Domenguez also felt confused, can’t you guys pass a second earlier?
Do you really have to make it a photo-finish?
No need for that!
This aging Italian defense had just been overpowered by me several times, there’s no need for razor-sharp passes.
Just kick it.
Even long balls work.
I’m so handsome, and so fast, don’t just give me the ball at the last moment all the time. If I touch the ball more, appear on camera more, get a better feel for the ball, what’s bad about that?
The Real Madrid players were also shaking their heads.
The Atletico players were still a bit rough in their cooperation.
The Barça players were too obsessed with their possession play, lacking imagination beyond the rules. Together with them, Zidane couldn’t pull off the Celestial Flying Immortal, Lima couldn’t dribble past with a pendulum move.
Each of these three clubs has its own tactics and philosophy.
But one has to admit that the current level of players at these three clubs is very high, so they can quickly preliminarily accept each other in the national team.
Plus, their midfield core are all from Barça, so it runs very smoothly.
Ortiz’s position is left winger, but his style is indistinguishable from an attacking midfielder.
Kolar, though an Atletico midfielder, grew up playing with Ortiz and others in the Spain youth team, so he accommodates their style.
This Spanish supercar, powered by a Barça engine, with Atletico and Real Madrid front wheels and Real Madrid and Barça rear wheels, completely overwhelmed Italy on the field.
But after the first half, the zero-zero score told everyone that Spain had dominance but couldn’t score.
"Spain turned football into a lullaby, once faced with high-quality defense, their possession seems somewhat meaningless." Today’s guest commentator was none other than Mr. Winter.
As the spokesperson for the Premier League’s beautiful football, Mr. Winter also has a deep understanding of possession play.
"Barça’s ball control is strong in creating numerical superiority through passing." Winter said, "But this requires the whole team to have great chemistry."
"Spain clearly lacks this chemistry. So in the first half, Domenguez repeatedly missed good chances. It’s actually not his problem; it’s the Barça passers who haven’t compromised for Domenguez."
"The midfield should serve the forward, not the forward serving the midfield. If Spain’s midfield combination doesn’t understand this, they will always find it hard to breach Italy’s goal."
"Moreover, if Spain’s midfield keeps playing like this, their stamina might not hold up."
In traditional possession play, it’s actually about conserving stamina consumption.
Passing the football around to drain the opponent’s energy.
But Barça’s possession play actually involves endless position swaps... This demands high stamina; their midfielders in this era of eight thousand meters average per game already reached ten thousand meters!