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EM 2021: Dominant Spaniards despair - title candidate starts the tournament sobering

2021-06-17T05:32:21.253Z


Despite oppressive superiority in the first European Championship preliminary round, Spain cannot get beyond a goalless draw against Sweden. The disappointment is great.


Despite oppressive superiority in the first European Championship preliminary round, Spain cannot get beyond a goalless draw against Sweden.

The disappointment is great.

Seville - The sweaty Spaniards * crept off the pitch, exasperated and disenchanted, the cool Swedes * let their fans celebrate and applaud themselves. With a highly disciplined, but just as unsightly catenaccio, the Scandinavians defied the title favorites at the European Championship opener * A 0-0 win in Seville on Monday made long faces for the three-time European football champions and 2010 World Cup champions. "We are of course angry because we didn't score," said Spain midfielder Koke.

"We really fought, but unfortunately we weren't very lucky."

EM 2021: 847 to 107 passes - Spain desperate for disciplined Swedes

75 percent possession and a record-breaking pass record of 847: 107 were not enough for the Spaniards to win. Coach Luis Enrique's team kept desperate at the defensive bulwark of the Scandinavians, who earned the point with a lot of heart and passion. "We gave 110 percent," said defender Victor Lindelöf. “The Spaniards let the ball pass very well, it was difficult to face the pressure. But we achieved a really good result. "


However, the three-crown team around RB Leipzig's Emil Forsberg and Werder Bremen's Ludwig Augustinsson in front of 10,559 fans at the Estadio La Cartuja * were also lucky because of the chances of the clearly superior Spaniards.

In stoppage time, substitutes Gerard Moreno and Pablo Sarabia gave up two top-class opportunities to win.

“The only thing missing was the goal,” Koke argued with the result.

The Iberians meet Poland in the next group E * match.

The Swedes, who first survived the group stage at an EM * (2004), are up against Slovakia.

EM 2021: despite dominance - Spain fails to score

The hosts have not noticed anything from the corona excitement in the past few days.

After a positive test with captain Sergio Busquets, who was missing, like the Swedes Dejan Kulusevski and Mattias Svanberg, part of the team was vaccinated shortly before the start of the tournament - apparently without any side effects.


The home side dominated the game from the start and pushed the passive Northern Europeans, who hardly ever got over the middle line in the early stages, deep into their half.

The Spanish dominance was a bit like the 6-0 win against Germany in November 2020 in the Nations League.


EM 2021: Spain only 0-0 against Sweden - Olmo unlucky, Morata pathetic

Only the gates were missing.

Dani Olmo from German runner-up RB Leipzig had the first chance to take the lead after a good quarter of an hour.

The 23-year-old, who was the most conspicuous offensive player of his team in the first half, failed with his header at the strongly reacting Sweden goalkeeper Robin Olsen.


After that, Koke forgave twice from a auspicious position.

But Alvaro Morata had the best opportunity: The striker, who was generally unlucky, was suddenly completely free in front of Olsen after a positional error by the Swedes, but flicked the ball just past the goal.


EM 2021: Excitement in the penalty area - Isak, Llorente's shin and the post

The negligence in the conclusion almost took revenge shortly before the break, when the ex-Dortmund Alexander Isak caused a moment of shock.

The Swedish attacker's shot struck Spain defender Marcos Llorente in the shin, hit the post and then into the arms of goalkeeper Unai Simón, who had been given preference over the experienced David de Gea.

On the other side, Olmo failed again at Olsen.

So it went goalless into the cabins.


After the change, the momentum of the hosts flagged increasingly in humid and warm weather.

The ball was now played more in width than in depth, which made work easier for the Swedish defense.

Spanish chances were now rare.


EM 2021: Ripped-off Swedes hide themselves - Spain desperate

Rather, the outsider was very close after a good hour of the tour. Isak danced out three opponents in the penalty area and served his strike partner Marcus Berg, but the former HSV professional missed miserably from close range. Shortly afterwards he had to leave his place to Robin Quaison from Mainz. However, the Swedes no longer provided offensive accents in the final phase. For this the Spaniards stepped up again, but could not reward themselves.

(dpa) * tz.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA

Source: merkur

All sports articles on 2021-06-17

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