Key events
When did Vogue become Shoot become Mizz? The December edition not only features Jude Bellingham as its cover star – I can’t say my wife was impressed when it arrived through the letterbox – but with a gatefold poster, signed “Jude X”. And of course the “Hey Jude” headline is stone-cold genius; how do they think of these things?!
Pre-match controversy:
I daresay Lamine Yamal, for one, disagrees with his manager.
Spain, meanwhile, will want to circulate the ball, pulling England’s midfielders out wide to open that space in the middle Tuchel knows they mustn’t vacate; easier said than done. Ruiz will look to attack the box, Merino too – with both adding set-piece threat – while Lamine and Baena will both fancy themselves to have the better of their full-back, both inside and out.
Oyarzabal will, I think, play off Quansah, fancying his nous to create space, while I’d not be surprised if Rice is the pressing trigger, the front players looking to jump when the ball goes into him.
So, where is the game? I actually think Spain’s XI gives England a good chance. I’d not be at all surprised if Anthony Gordon is under orders to get about Martin Zubimendi – the way Alex Ferguson once did with Park Ji-Sung and Andrea Pirlo – a lovely passer but, by the standard a little weak. Mikel Arteta signed him because Declan Rice isn’t a first receiver, able to turn on the ball and punch into midfield, only to find the physicality of the Premier League was too much, hence the arrival of Bruno Guimaraes, so Gordon – and Morgan Rogers – can worry him, allowing England to take possession high up the pitch.
I also think they’ll use Kane dropping deep to thread passes in behind Spain’s high line, Gordon and Rogers looking to attack the space with Bellingham also joining the last line. Meantime, Anderson and Rice will seek to carry the ball forward, with the former also seeking to unfurl long passes and get the home defence turned to face their own goal.
I should add that, while England could have won that Wembley game –they’d have been close to impregnable at 3-1 – they might easily have been 3-0 down before they scored.
Tuchel speaks, telling ITV that “it’s a beautiful match”. They’ve qualified, done their homework and now can try and top the group.
Quansah keeps his place for doing well, while he wants to see White under pressure and cites his club partnership with Konsa as a reason for picking him, just as last game, he went for the Newcastle understanding between Burn, Hall and Gordon down the left side.
Otherwise, he wants to see “patient defending” when in a 4-4-2 or deep block, adding that, “under no circumstance” can they “open the middle” as, if you do, Spain will “go right through you” as they did to score their third when winning 3-2 at Wembley – a game in which Harry Kane missed a penalty to put England 3-1 up. Finally, they must avoid ball-losses in their own half.
Taking a closer look at the England side, there’s no getting away from it: the defence isn’t up to standard. Lewis Hall, mind-bogglingly omitted from the World Cup squad, is in – Tuchel’s problems were not just reflective of a panic at a crucial moment, but that he picked a group able to play one way only, without difference-making options. Otherwise, though, Konsa is now an automatic choice, but Quansah callow and lacking elite potential, while White is a decent Premier-League player and nothing more.
Email! “Thanks for putting up the squad list,” says Edan Tal. “Delighted that Clint Hill finally managed his long awaited call up.”
Shaun Derry next. Or Dan Burn.
Back to the teams, the thing that strikes me about Spain’s – the thing that always strikes me about Spain’s – is the absence from it of Pedri. I’m not sure there’s another midfielder in the world I’d prefer to have, but De la Fuente likes the balance without him, even with Rodri absent. I do wonder, though, if they’ll be able to exert their usual midfield control, given he’s gone for Merino, who offers goal-power but not loads else.
What’s on the line? Er, not much. Both sides are into the last eight, but the group-topper – England if they win tonight, Spain if they don’t – will play an unseeded team in the quarters, with the second leg at home, when the competition resumes at the end of March. In contention from the other A-groups are Italy, France, Belgium; Netherlands, Greece, Germany; Portugal, Denmark, Norway.
As for England, Thomas Tuchel plumps for the joy of a Konsa/Quansah centre-back pairing, with Dan Burn dropping out. Otherwise, Ben White is in at right-back ahead of Trent Alexander-Arnold, and the now-settled front six remains the same.
Spain are still without Rodri, but Lamine Yamal, rested for the 2-0 win away to Czechia, returns in place of Yeremy Pino. Otherwise, Pedro Porro, so important at the World Cup, loses out to Marc Pubill; Dean Huijsen is replaced by Aymeric Laporte; Mikel Merino is in for Fermin Lopez; and Mikel Oyarzabal is at centre-forward, not Ferran Torres.
We’ll go into those shortly, but in the meantime, also going on:
Teams!
Spain (4-3-3): Unai Simon; Pubill, Cubarsi, Laporte, Cucurella; Zubimendi, Fabian Ruiz, Merino; Lamine Yamal, Oyarzabal, Alex Baena. Subs: Raya, Joan Garcia, Marc Roca, Huijsen, Ferran Torres, Fermin Lopez, Pino, Pedro Porro, Barrios, Williams, Munoz, Pedri.
England (4-2-3-1): Trafford; White, Konsa, Quansah, Hall; Rice, Anderson; Rogers, Bellingham Jude, Gordon; Kane. Subs: Pickford, Steele, Alexander-Arnold, Hill, Burn, Spence, Lewis-Skelly, Gibbs-White, Bellingham Jobe, Eze, Ngumoha, Calvert-Lewin.
Preamble
The scandal of England’s World Cup semi-final capitulation is already enshrined in the extensive annals of mythological failure; failure so gloriously tepid and inept it’s barely failure at all, rather a perfectly pitched lyrical paean to the sacred, desperate art of getting in your own way as wimpishly as possible. It is beautiful.
The truth, though – and part of the beauty – is it remains an ultimately futile act. Let’s say England see out the win, setting up a final meeting with Spain: Emlyn, what happened next?
Spanish football stye is, without doubt, the hardest there’s ever been to beat. We saw it with Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, Vicente del Bosque’s national team – and now with Luis de la Fuente’s European and World champions. None of those sides were or are without obvious, glaring flaws, and yet their ability to look after the ball; their command of angles, most particularly of movement and first touch; their commitment to their principles; leave all opponents with an impossible dilemma: try to beat them by being more like them, or try to beat them by playing in a way they are expert at neutralising. Good luck, chaps.
Which is to say that, had England eliminated Argentina in Atlanta, they’d almost certainly have lost the final in the same predictable way they lost the Euro final. However – football being a perfectly balanced sport in which to cover one hole you necessarily leave another open – there’s always a however. So, however: that embarrassment of England’s defeat might, finally, have forced home the bitter reality that teams who cower and hope time runs out quickly enough to save them are not teams who win tournaments.
Tonight’s match will take a decent barometer of how deeply they believe an axiom proved infallible over many, many decades. The game being the game, a result that would once have been the difference between progress and not barely matters, given both sides are already through to the next stage. But this contest is not about that, rather about whether England can find a way of imposing themselves – on Spain, but also on themselves, for there is beauty in that too
Kick-off: 8.45pm local, 7.45pm GMT
