Alexia Putellas, two weeks ago in training in Las Rozas.RFEF/Pablo García (RFEF/EFE)
"You can't demand so much from us," the coach of the women's soccer team, Jorge Vilda, had claimed nonstop in recent weeks.
She was referring to appearing in the package of top candidates to lift the European Championship that begins this Wednesday in England (Old Trafford) with the confrontation between the host and Austria (9:00 p.m.).
A favorite poster that Spain had been placed inside and outside.
The great growth of Barcelona, an absolute reference for La Roja, going unbeaten in 23 games (since March 2020), and having the current Ballon d'Or, Alexia Putellas, on their payroll, had triggered the most optimistic pools.
"There has never been a team that has been demanded so much without having won something first," Vilda replied in the tournament preview.
And, suddenly, three days before the debut (Friday against Finland, 6:00 p.m.), those high expectations received the worst of blows: the serious injury of Putellas, who in training on Tuesday tore his anterior cruciate ligament. her left knee, a mishap that sent her to the infirmary for several months.
The gloomy image that the federation spread in the middle of the afternoon, on crutches and without supporting the leg, leaving the concentration hotel on the way to the hospital to undergo medical tests served as an advance for the terrible news that was known shortly after.
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A traumatic setback that alters the balance of forces with the rest of the rivals and that is a mental blow for a locker room that in just a few hours, just before starting the climb, was left without its leader on the field.
An absence that also joins that of Jenni Hermoso, the team's top scorer (42 goals in 82 games), ruled out a few weeks ago due to a second-degree sprain in the internal lateral ligament of her right knee despite the fact that she slipped that she could have been available in the Euro with the passing of the matches (there are six at most until the final).
To communicate the substitute for Putellas, the technician has a margin until Thursday at 6:00 p.m.
The loss of Alexia (28 years old), who had participated in the last 33 duels of the national team (without failure since May 2019), generates a convulsion in all orders of Spain.
In addition to the mental impact, it alters the invariable line of the midfield (his combination with Patri Guijarro and Aitana Bonmatí was non-negotiable) and subtracts a goalscoring threat, something for which Spain already landed battered this Sunday in England due to the absence of Jenni Hermoso.
🔴 The international Alexia Putellas, on her way to the hospital to undergo the relevant medical tests that will determine the extent of her injury.
pic.twitter.com/Q6cvrP5dXs
– Spanish Women's Soccer Team (@SEFutbolFem) July 5, 2022
Despite his status as a midfielder, the shovels of the Ballon d'Or to the bonfire of the goal are not few.
In the last clashes against posh squads (Italy, Brazil or Germany), the goals of Spain had been their own.
So, beyond the serious disturbance of his absence in the making of the game, his injury is a serious setback for a goal-scoring effort that on many occasions has generated doubts in Jorge Vilda's team.
He now he will have to get by without two flags like Putellas or Hermoso.
The misfortune of the azulgrana is the culmination of a preparatory phase in which the attack from Spain monopolized almost all the analyses, uncertainties and regrets.
Due to Hermoso's loss first, the criticized absences of Amaiur Sarriegui and Nerea Eizaguirre (authors of half of the goals of Real Sociedad, second classified in the League), and then due to the fall of Salma Paralluelo.
The 18-year-old, half athlete and half footballer until now, was the surprise on the list of 23, a tactical asset to break games from her technique and speed (she has the best U-18 national record in 400 meters hurdles), although He had not yet debuted with the absolute.
However, she did not recover from an injury in time and was left on the runway.
Mishaps and noise before the final trauma, the serious injury of Alexia Putellas.
Now yes,
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