There is no memory of the last tournament in which there has been a team as superior as the Spanish team at Euro 2024. They have won all six games, they play better than any other and they score historic and legendary goals such as Lamine Yamal’s against France on the day that Mbappé had taken off his mask to announce his arrival on the pitch after filling the press rooms in Germany. The play and the performance of the Barça player, even more precocious than Pelé, had a deterrent effect on a match that crowned Rodri. Around the figure of the midfielder, Spain built a triumph as incontestable as it was admirable, the best way to reach Sunday’s final in Berlin.
World Cup winners France, who had only conceded one goal from a penalty, were left speechless after the Spanish team turned things around in four minutes after Kolo Muani’s goal. A lightning-fast response to confirm the impeccable record of a team that has been insatiable since arriving in Germany. All their matches have been a delightful adventure, led by mostly well-travelled players who are ready to face the uncertainty of the game without fear in the different stadiums of the Bundesliga. They have never let themselves go, always far from routine and on the contrary associated with risk, convinced that without daring there is no excitement and the Euro Cup would hardly have been worth it.
It is not a question of pedantry or recklessness, but of being equally bold against the different opponents that they have come across in Germany. Opponents usually condition the game and the team had its moments of difficulty against Croatia, needed to come back against Georgia, ended up exhausted against Germany and showed off against Italy. The demand was supposed to be even greater against France and, nevertheless, the match was much more bearable for Spain. Although the six matches have been different, the team has always been the same, recognisable by its ambition and its excellent football, by its ability to attack and take risks and by knowing how to read the different moments of the game.
It is no coincidence if you look at the list and the profile of the 26 players called up by De la Fuente. The majority, and especially those who support the team, are not players from a single club, but their career includes more than one team and one league, nothing to do with the era dominated by Madrid and Barça. Rodri was a player for Villarreal and Atlético before becoming the reference for City. Fabián’s career includes Betis, Elche, Napoli and PSG. Olmo left Barcelona and arrived at Leipzig after passing through Dinamo Zagreb. And captain Morata has worn the shirt of Madrid, Juve, Chelsea and Atlético.
Even Real Madrid’s Carvajal spent time at Bayer Leverkusen in the same way that Sevilla’s Navas was at City, Laporte also played for City, Athletic and Al Nassr, Cucurella played for Barça, Eibar, Getafe, Brighton & Hove Albion and Chelsea and Merino ended up at Real after spells at Osasuna, Borussia Dortmund and Newcastle. Many have had to adapt to a country that is not theirs of origin, they needed to figure out a different team and a different championship and learn a language to be able to cope with a life as changing as many of the matches at the Euros.
This explains why they are just as good on the street as they are on the pitch, accustomed to difficulty, willing to overcome obstacles and expand their knowledge, unique in knowing how Spaniards are seen from outside Spain. They have learned not only to live together but also to like risk, as if they had metabolized it, nothing to do with what happens to Nico and Lamine. Both take risks without yet knowing what risk means or a club other than Athletic in Nico’s case or Barça for Lamine. They play with the naivety of children, as irreverent as they are spoiled by their determination to deceive, dribble, surprise and create the danger that adults try to avoid, and even more so in football, as has been demonstrated in Germany. Both fit perfectly into a team that works precisely as a fun team and grateful for its adventurous and challenging sense.
It was also risky to face France without Carvajal, Pedri or Le Normand and the coach had no doubts about betting on Navas. The challenge was huge given the affront of Mbappé and the solidity and tactical organisation of an opponent who asserts themselves by boring and denying their rival, so sure of themselves that Rabiot challenged Lamine. “To play a final, he will have to do more than he has done so far,” proclaimed the Frenchman before the match and before the Barcelona striker slammed the goal that equalised him, the match and the Euro Cup in his face.
Nobody believed that Lamine Yamal was so good, equally visionary as a finisher and as a passer, always accurate in his decision-making; doubts were cast on the centre-backs and the centre-forward, without taking into account that Laporte attacks better with the ball than many forwards and that Morata defends like the fiercest defender; Cucurella’s combativeness was not given much attention either, and the luminous and omnipresent figure that Fabián has been was probably underestimated. The Spanish team was not exactly among the favourites for the Euros.
The players knew that to stop being anonymous and transcend they needed to take risks and not speculate; to be active and not reactive; to toughen up and not complain; to hold on to the games and not settle; to be vertical and versatile, not horizontal and predictable; to know how to suffer as much as to enjoy; and to compete with confidence and greatness, until reaching the final in Berlin, the last adventure of an exciting journey through the Euro Cup.
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