A draw and Qatar. The DANA that threatened so much now blows a little less and Spain is enough a point against Sweden to be in the World Cup. That will be on Sunday, from here until then we will get tired of hearing that we have to go for victory and not settle for a draw. But the triumph in Athens, thanks to a penalty goal from Sarabia, and the hit from Sweden in Georgia allowed us to make that jump with the net. Not long ago that was unthinkable.
Before even starting the game, Spain was already winning by two to zero. The goals had been signed by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia almost two thousand kilometers away, in Batumi, where Georgia gave us a huge gift by knocking Sweden down. Now it was time for La Roja to do his homework. To do this, Luis Enrique starred in the umpteenth revolution with which to turn the lineups provided by the media into a dead letter. The debut of Raúl de Tomás was the headline of the cover, although the eleven held some other surprise, such as Rodri’s by Busquets, who came to the game with the exciting challenge of surpassing his former teammate Iniesta in number of caps (131 games both).
John van´t Schip opted for a defensive line with three center-backs and two lanes, while at the top it was entrusted to two center forwards such as Pavlidis and Masouras. It took five minutes to realize that Greece wanted to erase the rust and iron with which it appeared in March at the Nuevo Los Cármenes in Granada. It was a Greece that was looking for the ball, more vertical, with the centrals quickly starting the game. Meanwhile, in the rival trench, the doubt about the location of Raúl De Tomás was cleared in the blink of an eye: the left wing would be its natural habitat with Morata as the axis in the center of the attack.
The dominance was of Spain, yes, but the chances of scoring did not arrive. Gavi seemed to be the best can opener against Helena’s defense, who with those three centrals became strong. The pearl of Barça surprised us against France, in the Nations League final, and captivated us again against Greece. It has the ability to touch the first time, also the oriented control with which to open any wall. Every time it received and turned, it created danger.
He was one of the culprits that La Roja anesthetized Grecia, which with the passing of minutes lost its initial momentum. He had the odd arreón, such as the pass to the hole that Masouras finished off on goal but that the VAR annulled for offside. That happened in the 21st minute and three later a penalty would arrive in favor of Spain for lack of Giannoulis to Iñigo Martínez. Missing that way, missing revisable. The VAR, the famous chicken sexer who so puzzled Alfredo Relaño, decreed that the offense sanctioned by Marciniak was. Sarabia launched and the goal did justice to that first third of the game in which La Roja had dominated at will. He continued to do so, even stroking the 0-2 after a good action by Morata in which he protected the ball with his body and finished off hard from the left. Vlachodimos’ paradon allowed Grecia to come to rest when the fruit seemed about to fall from the tree.
But he resisted. And he continued to do so in the resumption, in which Tzolis (who came into play for Masouras) was the only positive news for a Hellenic team forced to win the last two games of the qualifying rounds to dress as a World Cup. Luis Enrique gave new oxygen with Olmo and Rodrigo Moreno as relays for Sarabia and De Tomás. He was also forced to do so when Gavi had to be substituted after being slapped by an opponent. Shocked, the azulgrana left his place to Busquets, who formed with Rodri that strange couple in which the ball seems to have no other copyright than his. And that is the most precious asset when what one negotiates is a 0-1. So fair. So dangerous. So La Roja had no choice but to sweat and suffer in a big way in the final stretch in which each set piece became a lottery. It came out expensive. Now the only thing left is that he also do it next Sunday in Seville, where we fight against giants. Ibrahimovic and Isak will sell their skin dearly.