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Spain’s road to the EURO 2024 final
Blogs

Spain’s road to the EURO 2024 final

12/07/24 17:58

Spain’s road to the EURO 2024 final

Tournament favourites Spain have reached the final EURO 2024 to nobody’s surprise, facing England in Berlin on Sunday. Let’s take a look back at how they got there, and what we can expect from them against the three lions.

GROUP STAGE

La Roja started off their campaign in the group of death alongside Italy, Croatia and Albania. Despite many people saying that this group would be very difficult to make it out of, Luis de la Fuente’s men simply made it look easy. Qualifying with a match to go, the starting XI were able to be rested against Albania, allowing for minutes for some of their fringe players, which would prove to come in handy later on in the tournament, seeing Pedri get injured, allowing for Leipzig man Dani Olmo to make his way into the lineup.

Match day one: Croatia

Spain started their tournament off with a bang beating Croatia 3-0. What many people were expecting to be a tight clash between two recent European heavyweights ended up being a one side domination in favour of the Spaniards.

This was only the start of the show for the attacking brilliance that Spain had to offer; Lamine Yamal, Nico Williams, Alvaro Morata and Fabian Ruiz all proved their worth in this fixture, and made a statement to other teams about how far they could go in this competition.

Elsewhere on the pitch Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella stood out with some fantastic defending to help his side keep their first of three clean sheets. This strong defence would prove to be the difference later on in the group stage.

Match day two: Italy

One of the most talked about clashes of the entire group stage of the competition, Spain’s next hurdle was reigning champions Italy, who had come off the back of a shaky 2-1 win against Albania. While La Roja only won the match 1-0 after an own goal from Riccardo Calafiori, they proved their resilience, showing another side to their game than that from match day one.

With Italy’s gameplan being very much a defensive one, Spain did well to keep pushing and come away with three points. Although there weren’t many goals, no one was doubting that the chances they were creating were nothing short of fantastic, and it was clear that sooner or later in the tournament, goals would come thick and fast for them.

Six points from the two games meant that Spain had qualified with a match left to go, to the delight of de la Fuente, who could now go into match day three with the option to experiment with his squad, and give some of his big name players a well-earned rest.

Match day three: Albania

With a total of 10 changes from their last team put out, it was expected that the tempo wouldn’t be as high from Spain against Albania, but the squad players did not disappoint. Still grabbing all three points with a 1-0 win after a goal from Ferran Torres, it was clear that even the players normally on the bench meant business. Creating 16 shots, they entertained almost as much as the first choice XI.

It was no surprise in the end that Spain ended the group stage with maximum points (9), but what was incredibly impressive was that they didn’t concede a single goal throughout the three matches. It really was the perfect group stage.

ROUND OF 16

Winning Group C meant that Spain were drawn against 3rd place in Group F, Georgia. With what was on paper an easy tie for de la Fuente’s men, expectations were high for goals. This is exactly what we got, but not just for Spain.

There was an early shock when Robin Le Normand scored an own goal, putting Georgia ahead, but Rodri, who seems to only score crucial goals, managed to equalize before the break, and after half time it was one-way traffic. Ruiz, Williams and Olmo all netted great goals to make the final score 4-1.

Even with the early setback, there probably wasn’t anyone that thought they would actually lose that match, and low and behold, they ended up thrashing the Georgians.

QUARTER FINALS

By far the biggest test for Spain so far, they were to face tournament hosts Germany, who alongside Spain had boasted the best scoring record so far in the tournament. A clash which had everyone at the edge of their seats, going all the way to extra time after Leverkusen wonderstar Florian Wirtz scored an equalizer in the 89th minute to cancel out Olmo’s opener, but in the end, Mikel Merino scored a goal to win the game 2-1 for Spain in the 119th minute, just 68 seconds before the end of extra time, saving them from having to do a penalty shootout, something which Germany haven’t lost since the final of EURO 1976 against Czechia.

The was a major controversy in extra time, when Cucurella blocked a shot from Jamal Musiala, which was on target and would’ve probably gone in the back of the net had it not touched his hand. If a penalty were to have been given then, the match would have probably ended very differently than it did, maybe even seeing Germany get through. Sometimes poor refereeing decisions can cost so much, and this time, an entire nation of fans were screaming for it.

SEMI-FINALS

Coming up against 2018 World Cup winners France is not easy for anyone, but with the way that both sides had been playing in this tournament, Spain were by far the favourites going into the game.

Once again Spain were pegged back early after Randal Kolo Muani scored within the first 10 minutes of the tie. This definitely kicked La Roja into gear as it only took 16 minutes for them to perform a full turnaround, with a goal of the tournament contender from Yamal, and another belter from Olmo meaning it was 2-1. The rest of the match was almost cagey, but Spain had the better of the chances, and the second half ended up being goalless.

Although they didn’t manage to keep a clean sheet, the Spanish defence did their job well to keep out the likes of Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembele. They had seemed to prove time and time again that they have what it takes to beat whoever is put in front of them, and that is exactly what you need in tournament football, but England also have that quality. Whether Spain will have what it takes to beat the Three Lions or not, we will find out this Sunday.

Benji Kosartiyer
Journalist
Lily Perrill

Writer

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