Rafa Mir rescues Spain from the abyss

Spain, which venerates the pass, the game and the imagination, was rescued from a major scare by faith, cunning and the old recipe of the ball to the pot. And so, against nature, Luis de la Fuente's team got rid of the Ivory Coast and reached the Olympic semi-finals again, on Tuesday against Japan (13.00), for the first time since Sydney 2000. An eternity during which Spain cultivated a formula that allowed him to dominate football between 2008 and 2012, and that at the Tokyo Games seemed to reach him only to contain the Ivory Coast until the 89th minute. At that point, Gradel scored the 1-2 and left the selection in the abyss. Then Rafa Mir came in, a ball flew over the area, the centrals made another mess, and the forward struck out a goal that took the match to extra time, a territory from which Spain no longer let him escape.

There, the defense made its third serious and childish mistake: Bailly, a Manchester United center-back, jumped at a hanging ball with his left arm extended to the sky, and the VAR alerted the referee that he should see that on the screen.

Oyarzabal and his little jump confused the goalkeeper (3-2).

The road to the semifinal was already downhill, and in that inertia Mir scored twice more and ended up taking the ball to the Olympic Village, where despite the five goals, De la Fuente will be able to continue to ponder the enigma of the goal.

Against the Ivory Coast, they also did not finish figuring out how to connect the game and the opponent's network.

Although they did discover that they have enough tools to escape impossible situations and they are already sniffing the medals.

ESP

5

-

2

CMR

Spain Unai Simón, Eric Garcia, Óscar Mingueza (Jesús Vallejo, min. 9), Pau Torres, Juan Miranda (Cucurella, min. 105), Martín Zubimendi (Jon Moncayola, min. 105), Merino (Rafa Mir, min. 91) , Pedri (Carlos Soler, min. 101), Dani Olmo, Marco Asensio (Bryan Gil Salvatierra, min. 67) and Oyarzabal Ivory Coast Eliezer Ira Tapé, Wilfried Stephane Singo, Ismael Diallo, Eric Bailly, Kouadio Dabila, Kessié Franck, Cheick Timite (Amad Diallo Traore, min. 62), Kouassi Eboue (Koffi Kouao, min. 113), Max Gradel, Youssouf Dao and Cristian Kouame (Kader Keita, min. 89)

Goals0-1 min.

9: Eric Bailly.

1-1 min.

29: Dani Olmo.

1-2 min.

90: Max Gradel.

2-2 min.

92: Rafa Mir.

3-2 min.

97: Oyarzabal.

4-2 min.

116: Rafa Mir.

5-2 min.

120: Rafa Mir.

Referee Jesús Valenzuela Yellow cards Dani Olmo (min. 69), Kouadio Dabila (min. 73), Eric Garcia (min. 76) and Carlos Soler (min. 113)

Shortly after the start, Spain left a flash that suggested that perhaps this time they could avoid a duel of chewing and chewing the ball against an opponent with less appetite for the ball.

They accelerated through the center, very vertical towards the goal: Zubimendi, left by Oyarzabal and shot too high by Merino.

It was a fleeting mirage, dispelled in a couple of minutes of calamities.

Unai Simón cleared Côte d'Ivoire's first shot to a corner, and in the count of troops to order the defense, they found Mingueza sitting on the grass. The Barcelona defender had injured the hamstrings of his right leg in the first game, against Egypt, and had accelerated the return to be able to line up in the quarterfinals. The muscle lasted just under eight minutes. Without Óscar Gil, sanctioned for accumulating cards, the replacement was Vallejo, who joined just before the corner was taken.

In that stretch of confusion, between the injury, the change and the corner kick, Bailly advanced through the center of the area until he found the ball and scored with Eric García on one side and Pau Torres on the other. The Ivory Coast advantage returned Spain to its classic path of having more ball and less danger. Unai Simón appeared more than Pedri and Dani Olmo. The African team waited, stole and accelerated, and the Athletic goalkeeper was used on several occasions to prevent them from extending the advantage.

For the first time behind on the scoreboard in the Olympic tournament, Spain was barely tickling up, with Pedri and Olmo disconnected from the general gear. The goal came before the game. Asensio delayed Merino, who crossed from right to left looking for Singo's back, where Olmo was showing. The defender wanted to leave the ball with his chest to the goalkeeper, but the Spaniard, more alive, lengthened his right leg, put the toe in and tied.

The goal lowered anxiety, but did not unravel Spain. The most incisive thing that the selection produced was in the limbo of the VAR. Pau Torres guessed a long career from Miranda and put a vertical ball between the side and the center, which the Sevillian forwarded to the area, where Oyarzabal scored. Although offside. The best of Spain was not worth it, but it gave clues: the vertigo produced more than the trantrán, and when the team accelerated and gave air to the ball after the break, the goal was around again. They linked Pedri, Olmo and Asensio, and those of Leipzig and Madrid scared the goalkeeper Tape, who even saw the sticks shake after a shot from Asensio to the squad. But nothing.

What came was the funk of 1-2 in 89, Spain hanging over the abyss of elimination.

Until Rafa Mir appeared, giant, alive and precise, and took the ball under his arm, and Spain to the semifinals.

Results and crossovers

Rooms

Spain, 5 - Ivory Coast, 2

Japan, 0 (4) - New Zealand, 0 (2)

Brazil, 1 - Egypt, 0

South Korea, 3 - Mexico, 6

Semifinals

Brazil - Mexico (Tuesday, August 3, 10.00)

Japan - Spain (Tuesday, August 3, 1:00 p.m.)

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