Lselection started the road to Qatar World Cup with an ant tiee Greece. A point that knows very little seeing what the two teams did and that, make no mistake, is a stumble in the race to the final phase for the World Cup event next year. Spain He came from scoring 6-0 to Alemanito last November, but from that meeting that took place in Nuevo Los Cármenes there was an abyss. La Roja was not the steamroller that destroyed the Germans and Greece did not give the German facilities.
Lucky for Spain andI know this is just beginning and you have time to change course. But the truth is that the draw against Greece was a jug of cold water because hardly anyone expected that Spain would miss the victory in Granada.
The Red He already realized that it was not going to be easy at all to find the gap to overcome a very rocky Greece that came to the duel to seek a draw and the miracle of a victory. Miracle, yes, because the Hellenes trusted everything to put a double defensive wall around their goal and wait for a counter to arrive to have a chance to take something from Granada.
That plan did not go well for the Greeks against a Spain in which Luis Enrique surprised by putting Marcos Llorente placeholder image as a right back and a Eric Garcia next to Sergio Ramos. There was no Barça player in that starting eleven despite the good moment of Jordi Alba, Busquets and Pedri. Spain came out to put pressure on the Greeks and monopolized control of the ball and with it, the rhythm of a match that began with the Red pressing but without generating chances. The most dangerous, a double of Koke on the verge of a quarter of an hour that ended in nothing. So the minutes went by, with Spain dominating and no news from Greece in attack with Unai Simón touching the ball more with his feet than with his hands.
The rhythm of the match became slow, tiresome with Spain that still did not find the way to victory. Until the 32nd minute arrived. In a personal move, Dani Olmo he smashed his shot off the crossbar. The ball did not go out, it reached Koke that remembering old times at Atlético de Madrid, he put the ball to Morata that after a great control and without dropping the ball, beat the goal of Greece to put the desired 1-0 on the scoreboard in the 33rd minute of the game.
Spain had done the most difficult, but despite the attempts, Luis Enrique's men did not have time to increase the advantage and went to rest with that 1-0 that gave him the victory in a rocky and complicated match, a lot more than everyone expected.
Pedri and Bryan Gil debut
After passing through the changing rooms and without Sergio Ramos which was replaced by Íñigo Martínez, the panorama of the party seemed that it was going to be equal with Spain sending without excessive problems. But no. To everyone's surprise, Grecia drew a penalty in the 57th minute. The referee signaled the maximum penalty for a tackle by Íñigo Martínez to Massouras that ended up transforming Bakasetas at 1-1. It was Spain's turn to start over against a Greece that was going to defend whatever that result was, which for them was pure gold.
In this context and seeing that he had to react from the bench, Luis Enrique decided that it was time for him to Pedri and Bryan
Gil They will debut with the absolute. It was in the 64th minute when the coach gave the alternative to two of the players with the most future in Spanish and international football. HIS mission, to blow up the game with his tremendous quality and vision of the game. Pedri put himself in the place of Channels in midfield, acting between the lines, and Bryan Gil. On the left wing that I had been on Dani Olmo.
The changes of Luis Enrique who gave entry to Thiago and Oyarzabal to look for that goal that would give Spain the first three points on the way to the World Cup.
And the Red one looked for it and it looked for but it did not find the way of the triumph. Luis Enrique's men tried in every way, but the minutes were falling without the team hitting the goal again to beat a Greece that brought out all the tricks of the so-called other football so that little or nothing was played. In the end, in that duel, Greece came out winning, taking a point from Granada that tastes like glory to them and Spain, stumbling.
Spain, 1
Unai Simón, Marcos Llorente, Eric García, Sergio Ramos Íñigo Martínez, m. 46), Gayá, Koke (Thiago, m. 72), Rodri, Canales (Bryan Gil, m. 64), Ferran Torres (Oyarzabal, m. 72), Morata, Olmo (Pedri, m. 64)
Greece, 1
Vlachodimos, Bakakis, Papadopoulos, Tzavellas, Tsimikas (Kiriakopoulos, m. 80), Mantalos (Tzolis, m. 46), Zeca, Bouchalakis, Limnios (Siopis, m. 46), Bakasetas (Giakoumakis, m. 78), Masouras ( Fortounis, m. 65).
Goals: 1-0, Morata (m. 33); 1-1, Bakasetas (pen. M 57)
Referee: Marco Guida (Italy). Amarillas to Íñigo Martínez (m. 56), Zeca (m. 81), Giakoumakis (m. 83)
Stadium: New Los Cármenes. No public due to coronavirus