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(Jordi Blanco, correspondent in Barcelona) – Spain started the Eurocup wrongly. He deserved to beat Sweden in Seville but was penalized by his alarming success in the auction. 0-0 and both conviction in Luis Enrique’s football bet and doubts and fears, due to his deficit in terms of the goal, which did not arrive and left in the environment an evident feeling of disappointment, and concern, at what is coming.
At 15 minutes Robin Olsen saved a shot from Dani Olmo, at 90 he did it to Gerard Moreno and at 93 to Sarabia. Between one thing and another, especially in the first half, Spain dominated in a sometimes overwhelming way and touched the goal two, three and four times … But the Swedish goal sometimes and the inability of their forwards other times caused everything to end just as it started.
Worse still, it ended with a feeling of manifest helplessness, with Morata pointed out and the team in disbelief for what it should have been and was not …
La Roja is as much in need of a goal as there is plenty of football, character, intensity and conviction. Luis Enrique gave an account of the plan in the previous one and Sweden discovered as soon as the match began that the Spanish coach was not bluffing because his players transferred everything that the coach announced in the press room to the pitch.
But neither Luis Enrique nor anyone else should have had a circumstance as simple as it was decisive in football: the goal. Without a goal, neither joy is complete nor is any kind of perfection contemplated. And this Spain that debuted with the best game of the first four days of competition was weighed by that alarming lack of definition.
Excellent in its staging, the Spanish team subjected the Swedes to a sometimes suffocating dominance that lasted throughout a first half that deserved to finish with an advantage, frank, on the scoreboard they almost thanked not to go to rest below, frozen to the 40 minutes with the only Swedish arrival in which a miraculous foot of Marcos Llorente, whose rejection crashed into the post, avoided the goal of Aleksander Isak.
Before that, Robin Olsen had already excelled after a quarter of an hour to a poisoned header from Dani Olmo, Koke sent a frank shot to the clouds near half an hour and Álvaro Morata, on the best and clearest occasion, finished too crossed when he found himself alone in front of the Swedish goal.
Fast in circulation, excellent in pressure after loss, always very close to the rival area, and mixing the game on the wings and inside, Spain came to touch 90 percent of possession and finished the first half with 84 percent , showing a superiority as obvious … as useless in the absence of that goal that he sought so much.
NERVES
Incredulous by the tie at halftime, Spain lost freshness and agility in the second half. He continued to dominate, he maintained command of the game but the brilliance subsided as the minutes passed and the nerves appeared and, little by little, fatigue.
Against a well-positioned opponent, the audacity in dribbling was lacking. Pedri hardly tried while Morata was still at odds with the goal and Sweden, firm, serious and rocky, noticed the electricity of a superb Aleksander Isak to show his claws, as happened at the time of the game when a play as convoluted as The brilliant Real Sociedad striker ended up with a goal pass to Marcus Berg that he unbelievably topped the clouds, causing a scare, another, capital to a Spain that was as dedicated to its mission as it was bewildered.
More every minute that passed and that motivated the reaction of Luis Enrique, first entering Thiago and Sarabia, then Oyarzabal and Gerard Moreno, changing pieces but maintaining the idea with the conviction that the goal prize had to come by force …
But neither on the outside nor on the inside, neither combining short nor even less hanging balls in the area did Spain find the necessary gap, the opportune gap, the perfect play with which to tear down the wall of a Sweden that did not need to deceive or surprise anyone with your bet.