The Spaniards are considered the top favorites for the title at the European Football Championship. Even without the injured world footballer Alexia Putellas, the team started the tournament confidently. Germany has chances in the second group game – for several reasons.
The pictures were a shock even before the first kick-off at this European Football Championship: Alexia Putellas with visible pain, on crutches. The knee is not bent, the leg is not loaded. Torn cruciate ligament in left knee during training the day before the opening ceremony. The big superstar of the scene cannot play in the tournament, the 28-year-old will be out for many months.
The world footballer, Europe’s footballer, Ballon d’Or winner, she’s missing. Spain – and the tournament that loses one of the big crowd pullers. What will become of the team that lacks the leader with the most caps? Especially since Jennifer Hermoso, the team’s record scorer, is also missing due to a cruciate ligament tear. The same striker who scored 51 goals in the 2021 calendar year than any other footballer in the world. But even without the 32-year-old, who is moving from FC Barcelona to Pachuca in Mexico, the Spaniards were the favorites in the tournament. It’s difficult to name them because of the good teams and the balance of many top nations. But they had to choose one, many experts chose Spain before the start. Are the odds gone now?
“We didn’t win either the European Championships or the World Cup, but we’re promoted to be winners or finalists. The pressure on the players isn’t normal,” national coach Jorge Vilda Rodriguez complained before the opening game against Finland. “The expectation is very high and that’s not good.”
The game against Finland was certainly not a real indicator, the Finns are by far the weakest in Group B, which includes Spain and Germany as well as the reigning European Vice-Champions from Denmark. But the 4: 1 (2: 1) made it clear: The Spaniards are not easily ruffled. Neither the shock of Putellas’ injury nor Linda Sällström’s early goal in the first minute altered their superiority. Finland goalkeeper Tinja Korpela prevented even more goals. And Vilda said after the game: “There were good moments but we haven’t seen the best Spain we can see and that’s what we’re working on to improve.”
Vilda has been in office since 2015, in the same year the selection was at a World Cup for the first time, and Spain qualified for the last tournament in 2019 – and played in a group with Germany (0:1). In the round of 16 it was over against the eventual world champions from the USA. The fact that the team went directly to the semi-finals when it first took part in the European Championship in 1997 is because it went directly to that after the group phase, it was a long time ago and it was not enough to qualify for the three following tournaments . Spain have only been consistent at European Championships since 2013 – but have never won a knockout game in a tournament.
So why the crass expectations? Spain qualified for the European Championship confidently, in the end they had a six-point lead over the Czech Republic in the group, seven wins and only one draw. 48 goals scored, none conceded – that’s brutal dominance. The Spaniards have already secured a ticket to the World Cup, and the team has now moved up to seventh place in the world rankings. The fact that the southern Europeans have made a steep ascent in Europe is also evident in the youngsters. The U19s were crowned European champions last Saturday, while the U17s only lost the European Championship final on penalties against Germany in May. The 2018 World Cup title belongs to the country’s U17s. “I believe that Spanish football will be dominant in the women’s field in the future,” predicts Joti Chatzialexiou, head of national teams at DFB. The Spaniards are basically “role models in their form of training”. He looked at a lot of performance centers there, especially in the men’s area – “that’s a different mentality, a different attitude”.
Players like Putellas, Hermoso, but also captain and defender Irene Paredes, her fellow central defender Maria “Mapi” Léon, goalkeeper Sandra Panos and Aitana Bonmatí have raised Spanish women’s football to a new level. They are all world class. These six have one thing in common: They play or played together at FC Barcelona until this summer. And the view of the Spanish team has a lot to do with the club. Barça women have been dominating European football for some time. In 2021 the club got the triple, this year the double was successful, the Champions League final against Olympique Lyon (1: 3) was one of only two defeats this season. FC Barcelona won 43 of 45 games with an unbelievable 213:24 goals. The 5-1 win in the first leg of the Champions League semifinals against VfL Wolfsburg also counts. Almost half of the Spanish squad is made up of Barça players, plus defender Leila Ouahabi, who has just joined Manchester City from Barcelona.
FC Barcelona have world-class players in their squad such as Bonmatí, who is even more in the spotlight after Putella’s absence. At just 1.58m tall, the attacking midfielder cites Xavi Hernandez as an inspiration, the world champion who has spent his entire playing life at Barça – and is now the men’s coach at the club. Bonmatí, who according to the Guardian once said: “In many situations women are assigned a subordinate role. I have never let myself be pushed aside”, was voted player of the game in the 2021 Champions League final. And then there is Claudia Pina, the great hope for the future. At just 20 years old, she is already following in Putella’s footsteps – at Barça and in the national team. She made her debut for the Blaugrana at 16, then went to Seville on loan to develop further and returned to the Camp Nou stronger a year later. Pina was top scorer and best player of the 2018 World Cup tournament.
The defense is no less top-class, especially Mapi Leon, who, according to the journalist Justin Kraft, convinces with an unbelievable pass rate of more than 90 percent and a tackle rate of more than 70 percent. Their balls are precise, 102 of their 113 passes came through against Finland and half of the crosses were successful. She fed the offensive with short passes and crosses from the half-field, the defensive was already the first part of the attack. For her central defender colleague Paredes there are even 82 successful passes out of a total of 87 in the statistics.
Although girls have only been allowed to live in the club’s famous football school, La Masia, since last year, the typical Barça game with lots of ball possession and the typical “Tiki-Taka”, the effective short passing game, is also mastered by the women of the club . Putellas, for example, used to visit several of Xavi’s training camps, and she also counts the club legend among her idols.
The fact that the Spanish national team cannot be equated with FC Barcelona is shown by the established attacking women who do not play for Spain: Caroline Graham Hansen storms for Norway, Lieke Martens for the Netherlands, the variable Fridolina Rolfö is in the Swedish European Championship squad . So Vilda can’t rely on a fully-rehearsed club team and has to make compromises. Of course, he had less time in preparation for this European Championship than Barça coach Jonatan Giraldez.
But of course, the Spanish offensive is blessed with talent. “We have to play very good pressing and remain compact because the Spaniards like to play in there with their short passing game,” warns DFB defender Marina Hegering before the duel (9 p.m. / ARD, DAZN and in the ntv.de live ticker). Nia Künzer, ex-national player and today’s ARD expert, also emphasizes: “The Spaniards have the quality to play around the high pressing – and then it can be dangerous,” said the 2003 world champion. “At the same time, Germany absolutely has to have access to that get the game, otherwise the players will be chasing the ball all the time.” A lot of ball possession, a lot of short passing does not always mean a lot of danger, the Spanish offensive is not mercilessly efficient despite all the quality. The Arnold Clark Cup in February also showed this. There were coordination problems and turnovers against England (0-0), Germany (1-1) and Canada (1-0).
“We have to accept the duel with the Spaniards without forgetting our game,” said national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg before the duel. “The opponents have to find ways to stop us if we play like this again.” Just like the impressive 4-0 start against Denmark when the German offensive thrilled with enthusiasm. The progress of the Spaniards in what many consider to be the toughest group B is far from certain. Because one thing is clear: both teams really want to win. As group winners, they would probably avoid the quarter-final duel with the hosts from England. Depending on the outcome of the other second group game between Denmark and Finland, either Germany or Spain could make it through to the quarter-finals. The statistics speak for Germany: five wins and three draws, Spain has never won against them.
