Luis de la Fuente’s European champions are in sublime form as they build up to next year’s tournament
“I
t’s all about rondos. Rondo, rondo, rondo. Every. Single. Day,” Xavi Hernández once said, but nobody expected it inside the opposition’s penalty area. And yet here was Spain’s new generation, European champions like his, doing exactly what he demanded – “Pum-pum-pum-pum, always one touch” – just a few metres from Ugurcan Cakir’s goal. Which, when the whole perfect sequence finally played out in Konya, Turkey, is where the ball concluded its journey.
The question now is where they will conclude their own. Can they, like Xavi’s generation, the most successful in history, follow the European Championship with a World Cup? Watching them play on Sunday night, nine months before the tournament’s opening at the Azteca stadium, the answer can only be yes. Watching the second of the six goals they scored, especially.
For 75 seconds Spain had the ball. Every player got it, taking 66 touches between them, the ball worked from one end to the other without Turkey getting any. Only worked doesn’t feel like quite the right word. A symphony, El País called it, which is what the sports daily AS called it too. Marca said to hang it in the Prado. When Pedri played it to Marc Cucurella on the left of the box, his ball, delivered first time, found Nico Williams inside the area. One touch in to Mikel Oyarzabal. One touch in to Mikel Merino. One touch in to the net. Pum-pum-pum-pum, and Spain were 2-0 up.
