Spain star player: Xavi Alonso
In the end, Spain qualified comfortably and impressively, but the start of the campaign could hardly have been worse with defeats against Northern Ireland and Sweden. Why such a difference?
After the disappointment of the World Cup it was hard to recover. We’d been so optimistic after beating Ukraine [4-0, in the opening group game] we believed we could go a long way, and getting knocked out by France [in the second round] came as a huge blow. Sometimes disappointment can prove contagious: it grabs hold of everyone and can be hard to shake off. Losing those two games at the start of the European campaign forced us to react and woke us up – it brought home to us that we couldn’t afford another mistake, and from there we started to play better.
Spain have also embraced a ball-playing style dubbed tiki-taka.
I don’t like the names tiki-taka [a nonsensical term that means pass and move] or jugones [playmakers]. However much of a jugon you are, however well you can do tiki-taka and keep the ball, you can still be beaten. You have to be able to combine possession and
neat passing with competitiveness and penetration. It’s no good being horizontal, you have to be vertical. In any case, we’d already embraced a ball-playing style; it’s not something that happened during the qualifying campaign.
There’s been a generational change, with a few high-profile veterans left out, such as Michel Salgado and Raul.
Yes, but that’s normal. We’ll be left out for younger players in the future. Luis Aragones has built a young side that is very close to him.
There’s been a huge debate about Raul’s absence. That can’t be much help.
Of course not. But we’ve learned to live with having such issues around the team.
Some say Spain have the easiest group: Greece, Russia and Sweden. But in the quarter-finals you’re likely to face Italy, and if ever there was a team that provokes fear and loathing in Spain it’s Italy.
Personally, I’ve got nothing against Italy and nor do I fear them. They have great players and are world champions but we beat them in a recent friendly. Let’s wait and see – we can’t worry about the quarters yet. It’s important we win the first game against Russia
to give us confidence. Besides, I don’t think we have an easy group: Greece are the holders.
Can Spain win the title?
We can win it but we can also be knocked out. We have to be aware that the tiniest little detail goes against you and it’s over. We can’t make any mistakes. Sometimes people talk about big questions and catch-all answers but look at the last World Cup: we played well against France in the last 16 but one free-kick, one set play, a single moment, and they’ve scored and we’re out. We’re optimistic but we mustn’t create too much expectation.
Newsletter
Current Issue
Advertisements
