BARCELONA – The Spanish team, nine years later, will play this Friday the quarterfinals of a great tournament, after linking failures in the 2014 World Cup, the 2016 European Championship and the 2018 World Cup, sent home to the first exchange rate in Brazil and falling without setting the tone first in France and then in Russia. With the selection of that past undressed, with the spirit imposed by the command of Luis Enrique and a squad of rookies, Switzerland shines as a rival as accessible as it is unpredictable. Your cover letter, eliminating the favorite France, is notice enough.
The theory draws a role of favorite for this Spain that has gone from less to more in the tournament, the first team capable of scoring five goals in two consecutive games and in which its coach has all his players available, once the recovery is confirmed by José Luis Gaya who hardly suffered an overload against Croatia.
Switzerland, on the other hand, will face the match with the transcendental absence of Granit Xhaka, Arsenal midfielder, a true conductor in the Swiss midfield and who, booked in the round of 16 against France, will miss the duel against the Hispanics due to suspension.
Yes Petkovic will have players capable of ruining the favoritism of Spain, starting with the hero Yann sommer in the goal and finishing with two forwards on unpredictable but always forceful occasions such as the pair formed by the discovered Breel Plunger and the expert Haris Seferovic, to whom, absent Xhaka, will have to nourish with balls the also experienced Xherdan Shaqiri looking for the seams of a Spanish defense that mixes solvency with fledgling and accuses, undoubtedly, an iron leadership.
Historically, the Swiss team is not a rival to tremble with in Spain. Out of 22 matches it was only able to beat him in one (in the 2010 World Cup premiere) but of the last four matches, including the one in South Africa, Red was only able to beat one, and the most recent, in November 2020, ended with a draw (1-1) in the UEFA Nations League that warns the Spanish team that this Friday’s match in Saint Petersburg will not be, at all, comfortable.
Curiously, in that last head-to-head Yann Sommer, the hero of the Swiss team against France, saving the last penalty of the shoot-out. Kylian mbappé, was able to reject two penalties to Sergio Ramos, which confirms that the team led by Vladimir Petkovic reaches their first quarter-finals since the 1954 World Cup with all the ambition to make history in their country.
The last time they crossed paths in a direct elimination of a major tournament was in the second round of the 1994 World Cup, the team led by Javier Clemente defeating Washington 3-0 with the second goal scored, curiously, by Luis Enrique.
Eliminated consecutively in the round of 16 of the Euro 2016 (defeated by Poland in the penalty shootout) and the last World Cup (loss to Sweden) Switzerland returns to the Krestovski Stadium in Saint Petersburg, where on July 3, 2018 it was fired by a lone goal by Forsberg two days after in Moscow the Spain led by Fernando Hierro, in the middle of a storm after the hasty dismissal of Julen Lopetegui, was eliminated by Russia in the penalty shoot-out.
The moment of truth for both arrives again on Russian territory. For Switzerland playing the quarterfinals is already an unquestionable success, for Luis Enrique’s Spain, the first prize for daring … And, it is trusted, the gateway to their return to the group of the aristocracy of international football.