The most striking thing about this Spain team, compared with their own previous iterations and the 23 other sides competing with them at the 2024 European Championship, isn’t really the level of technical skill.
The Spanish are impressive in that sense, but it’s really about their bravery, their boldness and their willingness to take risks.
International football tends to be cagey and cautious. Matches involving France and England this summer have been perfect examples of the conservative nature of these tournaments, but Spain have bucked the trend.
Their 2-1 semi-final victory against France last night (Tuesday) will live long in the memory, primarily for Lamine Yamal’s stunning equaliser, making him the youngest goalscorer in the competition’s history at 16 years and 362 days old.
After 30 minutes of play, it seemed the game was destined to become a genuine all-time classic. Ultimately, it didn’t quite reach those heights and the match was effectively won and lost in the first half.
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Spain’s approach, whether by accident or design, was about focusing heavily down their left flank.
It’s difficult to work out why this would have been the case — Jules Kounde has been solid at right-back, N’Golo Kante fills any gaps down that side, and right-winger Ousmane Dembele tracks back more than Kylian Mbappe does on the opposite side of the pitch. But the statistics match what seemed clear from watching the game — Spain wanted to attack down the left, France’s right.
Their main approach involved Aymeric Laporte bringing the ball forward from his left-sided centre-back role.
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Usually, Spain’s midfield trio was heavily skewed towards that side. Dani Olmo played as a No 10 more than as a right-sided No 8. Fabian Ruiz was very much a left-sided No 8, constantly making forward runs into the box. Even Rodri seemed to play more towards the left, too. All this created a large amount of space in the channel generally occupied by Mbappe, which seemed a major risk. But that’s how Spain play.
At times, Spain made inroads down that left side.
Here’s a good example of why teams play with wingers close to the touchline — they stretch the opposition back four and leave gaps for team-mates to exploit. Here, with left-winger Nico Williams on the ball, the distance between full-back Kounde and centre-back Dayot Upamecano is huge. Ruiz pushes into that space, in advance of Kante and into a good crossing position. No one, however, is at the far post to finish off his deep cross.
But the pattern continued — Laporte bringing the ball forward, Spain’s midfielders positioned towards the left, and a big space on the near side, Spain’s right, where Mbappe was positioned.
Here’s another example.
In this situation, you can’t even really consider the Spain midfield a triangle — they’re almost in a vertical line, all in the inside-left position, which is highly unusual. Again, if there’s a turnover of possession here, the out-ball to Mbappe is incredibly simple for France.
To exacerbate the situation, Spain were also very bold down their right, with full-back Jesus Navas constantly overlapping Yamal. Here’s an example of Navas pushing forward up the touchline, with Mbappe running back and instructing left-back Theo Hernandez to push wide and track Navas, while Mbappe himself confronts Yamal.
But Mbappe’s defensive work is only ever sporadic. Here, Navas’ overlapping goes unchecked, with Mbappe strolling back. Yamal can then cut inside.
But Spain were essentially leaving the near side empty and allowing Mbappe space. Here’s an early warning sign — France counter-attack through the middle and Mbappe makes a diagonal run off the left flank. Could the 38-year-old Navas, who made his senior debut for Sevilla when the Frenchman was aged four, match him for speed?
Well, maybe not quite. But a poor pass favoured the Spain right-back, and he cleared.
Leaving such large gaps down the near side, around Mbappe, was inevitably a huge risk.
It’s unclear precisely how this next situation came about because the television footage was showing a replay of a previous incident. But Spain are completely undermanned down the near side, with their midfield all over towards the left. Navas (highlighted with the yellow dot) has to close down Adrien Rabiot in a central position knowing that Mbappe is free behind him. In his panic, he slips.
And, in the end, he takes the best option — clattering into Rabiot before the midfielder can offload to an unattended Mbappe.
Tactical fouls have blighted the knockout stage of this tournament, with too many promising attacks halted by cynical challenges. Still, you have to admit this was an excellent foul to concede, even if it meant Navas would have to face Mbappe on a yellow card for the remainder of the match. And Navas was only the stand-in right-back — Spain’s first choice, Dani Carvajal, was suspended.
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This right-back zone seemed like a huge problem for Spain in the opening stages.
Here’s France’s goal, on eight minutes.
Even before Dembele plays this pass, Navas already seemed disconnected from the rest of the side — the centre-backs are not in a position to help him out and Yamal (No 19) does not look alert either.
By the time Mbappe receives the ball, Navas is isolated. He backs off, not wanting to commit himself.
Mbappe accepts this invitation to cross, placing the ball perfectly onto the head of Randal Kolo Muani.
In a parallel universe, France won this game because Spain allowed Mbappe too much space.
Here is another example of Spain’s entire midfield being over towards the left. This time, Hernandez has the room to bring the ball forward and play it to Mbappe.
This isn’t a good situation for Spain. On this occasion, Mbappe cut inside and had a decent attempt at goal.
The most surprising aspect of all this was how often Navas continued pushing forward rather than becoming more cautious and staying goal-side of Mbappe.
Here’s a situation that shows the risk of him being caught ahead of the ball — centre-back Nacho was pulled out to take on Mbappe…
… and dealt with him excellently, backing off and preventing Mbappe from breezing past him. Support eventually came from Rodri, but this was really all about Nacho’s defensive intelligence.
But Navas kept bombing forward past Mbappe, as was the case in the build-up to Yamal’s stunning goal on 21 minutes.
Can we attribute much tactical cause to this goal? Not really. Nevertheless, it’s funny to watch Navas. As Yamal goes to shoot, the veteran turns around and starts running back into position, knowing he desperately needs to get alongside Mbappe before any counter-attack forms. He was not, of course, expecting Yamal’s shot to fly into the net.
Still, Navas’ boldness brought about what proved the winner when, four minutes later, he yet again pushed forward, with Mbappe electing not to follow his run. This cross into the danger zone was cleared…
… but only as far as Olmo, who showed wonderful composure to bring the ball down and knock it into his own path…
… and then fire it home, via a sizeable deflection off Kounde.
Now Spain were ahead for the first time, would they change their game plan? Not really, at least not before half-time.
Here, with Yamal moving inside to pass to Olmo, Navas is yet again on the overlap.
Granted, things changed after the break.
Having shown little sign of the tiki-taka style that brought them three major titles from 2008 to 2012, Spain were considerably more conservative when in possession during the second half, dominating the ball.
Navas limped off injured just before the hour mark, with Nacho moving across from centre-back to become a makeshift right-back. But Spain, in fairness, kept pushing on and left-back Marc Cucurella popped up in the final third more than you’d expect.
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The only concern was over Spain coach Luis de la Fuente’s substitutions. He replaced both Olmo and Alvaro Morata to strengthen the midfield and — just like against Germany in the previous round — you sensed Spain had retreated too early and stopped offering any attacking threat.
But that is a minor criticism.
Otherwise, Spain have been a joy to watch throughout this tournament and will start Sunday’s final as strong favourites — regardless of the identity of their opponents.
