A final that nobody expected

With Greece things went wrong, with Greece it is time to straighten it out. There is no other. Spain visits Athens with the obligation to win to continue depending on itself in the qualifying rounds leading up to Qatar World Cup. This is the first stopover to achieve the long-awaited passport, the second awaits on Sunday in Seville, with Sweden as rival. The poisoned repechage pokes its ears over the horizon and you have to scare away those ghosts as soon as possible (follow today’s game live on As.com).

To add more drama to the stake, a plague of injuries has rocked the national team. He did it even before Luis Enrique gave the squad list, but also after. In athens There will not be two of Barça’s pearls, Ansu Fati and Pedri, which seemed essential for the coach because of the talent they treasure and because of the excellent response they have offered when they have donned the red. Nor will Ferran Torres, for example, how much shone in the Nations League Final Four, nor Oyarzabal, Marcos Llorente or Gerard Moreno. Eric Garcia and Yeremy PinoTo add even more bad luck, they fell off the list in the last league match.

So Luis Enrique has had to rearm the block that offered such good sensations in the aforementioned Nations League and in the Eurocup. AND has recovered some fixed from the recent history of La Roja, such as Carvajal, who returns after more than a year of absence due to the injuries that he has been chaining and that in el Real Madrid have made it possible to invent out of nowhere a right back like Lucas Vazquez. The Real Madrid player could enter the eleven with which we jump onto the field if he opts for offensive full-backs to face a rival made with TNT. Jordi Alba should form on the other flank, with Laporte and Pau Torres as centrals. A couple that is a world apart from the one Luis Enrique lined up at the start of the qualifying phase, the aforementioned duel with Greece that ended in a draw at one and that has become a backpack full of bricks. That day, March 25 of this year (it seems that it has rained a lot but the gazpacho of qualifying rounds, Eurocup and Nations League disloys anyone), they were Ramos and Eric Garcia who formed in the center of the rear. The goal of Anastasios Bakasetas left us cold in the New Los Cármenes. Today he will not be able to repeat crochet to the Hispanic jaw, as the Hellenic captain and forward of Trabzonspor injured his knee in the match against Besiktas last Saturday. It will also not be available for John van’t Schip Pantelis Chatzidiakos, sent off in the last match of the qualifying rounds played by Greece and ended with a 2-0 defeat in Sweden.

In the middle of the field It will be necessary to see if Soler regains ownership, although if we stick to the maxim of why play what works, Gavi should be the owner after his baptism with a note in the Nations League final against France. In that game he made it clear that the ball does not burn his boots and that the pressure does not go with him. Apparently, it does not go with any of those who make up the convocation, and of course not with whoever directs the ship. Pressure? Luis Enrique speaks: “I have been holding it since I was 19 when I made my debut with Sporting and I am going to go.” We have no doubts. And to march, the rock & roll that awaits us tonight in Athens.