Mikel Merino He is one of Luis de la Fuente’s praetorians. One of those players that the coach has had since he was a kid. In Stuttgart, the head of the Navarrese was Spain’s passport to the semi-finals of the Euro. The sixth in its history, the fourth in the last five editions. An atrocity.
In the stadium where Mikel made his debut for Spain, his arrival and header sealed his passport to Munich. And along the way he pulled out De la Fuente, who with the changes had gotten into a good garden. But there were two of his most faithful soldiers, Dani Olmo and Mikel Merinoto give a victory that at that time counted only on penalties.
Germany in the 80s with Füllkrug
When Germany wanted to be Spain, the party was dressed in red. But when Nagelsmann’s team forgot about styles and resorted to what was the hallmark of a country that scared everyone they passed through in the 80s, the afternoon began to speak in German. Through the touch he was unable to disorient Spain, but he did it like the old Germans, the Müller, Hrubesch, Rummenigge, Allofs, Seller… By pushing and pushing, cornering Spain, hanging balls without stopping and finishing everything that flew into the area, whether it was a ball, enemy or friendly meat. It was the appearance of Füllkrug that awakened the ghosts of that old Germany.
This time the changes…
De la Fuente bet big with 1-0 and a lot of time ahead. He first removed Lamine Yamal and a while later Nico Williams. They could have been short on strength, which is natural, but leaving the team without their two daggers left them without any way out, without fangs. And the respite of the Germans was heard from Stuttgart to Kiel.
Running eleven
Luis de la Fuente kept the route map marked. The eleven that started against Germany to seek the semifinals of the Euro Cup was the same one that started the round of 16 match against Georgia. Once the question has been cleared up between Pedri and Dani Olmo in favor of the Canarian, the coach does something that he has not done until now. Because since it debuted against Norway in March 2023, there was always at least one change between match and match.
But the fact that Spain comes out with the same team as in Cologne goes further. Because that had not happened since June 27, 2016. That day, when the team said goodbye to the Euro in France by losing 2-0 against Italy in Saint-Denis, Del Bosque repeated the team that had played the three games previous: De Gea; Juanfran, Ramos, Piqué, Jordi Alba; Busquets, Iniesta, Cesc; Silva, Nolito and Morata.
From then on, there were always changes between the parties in the stages of Lopetegui, Fernando Hierro, Luis Enrique and Robert Moreno.
It has taken 97 games since then to see the same elevens between two games. Before the Stuttgart game, the closest De la Fuente team came to repeating was in the Final Four of the Nations League. Among the eleven that beat Italy in the semifinal and started in the final against Croatia there was only one modification: Fabián Ruiz entered and Mikel Merino left the team.
The one from Munich will be new by force.
And Kroos injured a rival on the day of his farewell!
Incredible that Kroos’ name can be associated with a very hard tackle and an injury. It is something of which there was no memory, that did not exist. But it happened as soon as the match started. Stuttgart. Germany’s number 8 arrived late and poorly to pressure Pedri’s departure. He knocked the canary over and caused him a knee injury that is currently a sprain. If the action was strange, it was even more so than Kroos He protested an action for which he should have been grateful that Taylor only called a foul.
The staging of Germany with the knife between its teeth and three tackles in the first quarter of an hour worthy of yellow cards. Only the one from Rüdiger to Fabián had that punishment.
Eventually, Kroos saw a clear yellow and deserved another one in extra time. Who knows what would have happened with the punishment that the kick to Pedri deserved. Kroos may have appreciated it, because the end of his career was absolutely cruel. Barely compensated by the goodbye of his fans.
The message cannot change
This Euro Cup is confirmation that Spain has the wood. Beyond results, successes or failures, Luis de la Fuente’s team has put on the table an idea that has conquered everyone, even those who, when the team left Palma de Mallorca, assured that a team would be back that would be a meme. The fact is that the Spanish team is on everyone’s lips for everything: for play, for players, for approaches, for resources… The same if one day we are able to value ourselves. Because the sharp knives are still stored.
The curse
The Stuttgart match contained two curses. That of Spain was that of having been incapable throughout its history, since the first case in 1934, of imposing itself at home on those who organize a Euro Cup or a World Cup. That of the Germans, the one that the organizers of the Euro Cups have been dragging on since 1984, when Platini’s France celebrated the title in front of his people.
From that cursed battle Spain emerged victorious as it did so many times Germany: without knowing very well how.
Rüdiger, a giant
Huge match from the Berlin central defender. A wall that rose every time Neuer saw that his goal could be in danger. It was not only what he covered up and what arrived, it was the spirit with which he was able to infect his team, the atmosphere that was created for Germany to escape the trap in which it was trapped.
A city upside down
It must be that the German authorities learned at the last minute that Stuttgart was going to be one of the nuclear cities of the Euro. Because the city of Neckar is upside down, in search of a lost treasure. There is construction going on every step of the way, so much so that the fences have holes inviting you to take a look. Cranes that eat the parks. Detours, blocked streets, tunnels that are a mousetrap, desperate traffic jams. A train station that is a labyrinth of scaffolding, booths, disturbing nooks… Quite a spectacle.
