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Spain's Thiago: one of the stars in the team
Photo:
David Ramos / Getty Images
SPAIN
Luis Enrique once won the triple with FC Barcelona and is beyond any doubt as a coach.
The fact that today's Spanish national coach only nominated 24 players for the pan-European European Championship tournament, although 26 would have been allowed: It was accepted.
The fact that none of them was from Real Madrid, not even long-time captain Sergio Ramos: It caused displeasure in the capital, but it was justified from a sporting perspective.
But now Enrique is under pressure before the EM kick-off (9 p.m.; TV: ZDF; Stream: MagentaTV) - and can't help it. Because: The heart of his game idea, six and new captain Sergio Busquets, will at least miss the start of the tournament with a corona infection. Defender Diego Llorente was also infected, and in an emergency, the Spaniards sent their own U21s to a friendly against Lithuania. At the same time, a strictly shielded "parallel bubble" was raised: Seventeen potential successors train in isolation in the event that there are further failures.
A lot of noise about the title candidate from the Iberian Peninsula, whose endurance test against neighboring Portugal last ended 0-0. Anyway: The 6-0 win against Germany last autumn is rather the exception, before there had been a 1-1 draw against Switzerland and a 0-1 draw against Ukraine in the Nations League. The Spaniards can control games, even with Busquets representative Rodri they will hardly be available in midfield. The team's goal danger, however, is the great unknown.
Enrique has a player in the squad who suddenly hits in the late summer of his career as if on the assembly line: Gerard Moreno shot Villarreal CF to win the Europa League, scored 23 times in La Liga.
But the 29-year-old does not have a regular place.
It is almost certain that the Spaniards will play a good role again - despite the many world-class technicians, it could be tough around the penalty area.
SWEDEN
One of the best penalty area strikers in Europe plays for the Swedish team.
No, we are not talking about Zlatan Ibrahimović: The 39-year-old, who announced his national team comeback in March with the words "God is back" as usual, missed the European Championship due to an injury.
In his place, a youngster will play who is already considered the legitimate successor of Ibrahimović, not only because of his height of 1.92 meters.
Alexander Isak moved to Borussia Dortmund at the age of 17, moved on to San Sebastián at 19 - and at the age of 21 can look back on a season in which he scored 17 goals for Real Sociedad.
For comparison: Ibrahimović scored 16 times in his only season in Spain for FC Barcelona.
Isak, who has a fantastic understanding of the game and tremendous dribbling skills in addition to his physique and his nose for goal, leads a triumvirate of Swedish offensive talents who - used by playmaker Emil Forsberg - could bring back a little of the flair that the traditional 4-4-2 defensive teams of Sweden could bring back missed in the past.
Jordan Larsson, son of storm icon Henrik Larsson, should play a wild card as a strong striker. Dejan Kulusevski, who has matured as a dynamic, tall winger at Juventus Turin, even has chances to start - as soon as he has survived his corona infection. That shouldn't be the case until the third group game at the earliest, but the tournament could go a little longer for the Swedes anyway.