We wanted to be in London because that was synonymous with the fact that we had reached the semi-finals of the European Championship. And in London we are. The journey has had as many twists and turns as one can imagine, but the big tournaments are not won from the hotel reception. Switzerland made it clear. We suffer, but we qualify. We did it after a heart attack penalty shootout that was born crooked and ended in glory. With two stops by Unai Simón that serve to make the Vitoria man smile from ear to ear again, with the final goal from Oyarzabal that caused the cry of a country. We are in the semifinals, we left it for Monday to make an appointment for the cardiologist.
Switzerland was an exemplary rival, a highly tactically worked team supported by a generation on the verge of syrup. A team that did not give up despite the fact that the road for them started very uphill. When we were still analyzing each other's tactical schemes (Luis Enrique's irrevocable 4-3-3 versus Vladimir Petkovic's 3-4-2-1), Spain got up on the scoreboard. A corner with no apparent danger, a volley from Alba and Zakaria's deflection that turns into poison for Sommer. That easy. And to think that at the start of the tournament we had to approach the rival goal with pick and shovel … It was minute 8 and that goal allowed us to look at the game with different eyes. Now it was Switzerland that had to take the initiative and play what it is not used to. The big setback for Petkovic's men was that they had to do it without Xhaka, absent due to the accumulation of cards and that against Spain he was replaced by Zakaria. The rest of the block was the same one that had given the great surprise of the championship by sending France home. But the 0-1 shattered the script with which the Helvetians arrived at the stadium. It was not enough to wait for the opponent and in a click to run with a counter attack, rather, you had to advance a few meters with the consequent risk of bare your backs at the speed of Ferran and Sarabia.
Xhaka absent, the focus was on Shaquiri. The Liverpool man moved between the lines with that left-handed man capable of reading where others' minds are clouded. Every time the ball was in their possession, the Spanish midfielders tried to stifle their departure. Minutes passed and Switzerland bet on the set piece as the best way to score. But he suffered. The first setback had come with Alba's early goal, while fifteen minutes later he did it with the injury of Embolo after fighting with Pau Torres for a ball near the end line. Vargas entered for him and fulfilled the same mission, although without the Mönchengladbach forward's turbo.
After half an hour, Luis Enrique switched Ferran and Sarabia to the side, a carbon copy of what happened against Croatia. Laporte and Pau saw each other and wanted them to get the ball played and, with Busquets deactivated (Shaquiri became his shadow), La Roja was unable to complete play. And that ends up being anesthetic. One corner, two corners, several corners later Switzerland became big and Spain small, although Unai Simón did not have to use himself thoroughly. It was a game that needed the grinder to see good football, with the net in the center of the field neutralizing everyone, so the best thing that could happen was for half-time to come. He did it with Switzerland winning in corners (4 to 3), in disputes (7 to 1) and in balls recovered (24 to 21), but with a goal like a sun on the scoreboard at the Krestovski stadium in Saint Petersburg.
It was that little saving to try to reach the semifinals, because Switzerland was going to press yes or yes. For now, Luis Enrique was forced to touch the team before the discomfort of Sarabia, limping for almost the entire first half. Olmo entered for him, which did not change the score. The same thing happened when Gerard Moreno replaced Morata in 54 '. Two minutes later the big scare would arrive after a header from Zakaria that brushed past the right post defended by Unai. Zakaria is not XhakaThat is clear, but his physical drive was appreciated by Switzerland, more dangerous as the minutes progressed. Zuber also rounded the goal (63 ') and in 68', the coin fell tails. Bad luck meant that in a Laporte cut the ball hit Pau and was left free for Freuler, whose death pass was finished off on goal by Shaquiri.
But, what is football, Freuler turned from hero to villain because from that decisive assist he went to a direct red after Gerard's tackle. A tough action, although perhaps overly punished. It was minute 77 and there was an unknown: would the Helvetians lock themselves in to try to reach extra time or would they try to maintain their pressure at the exit of the ball from La Roja? The response was immediate, as Shaquiri and Seferovic were substituted only four minutes later. Switzerland endured and did not finish waking up Spain, whose last window of changes in the 90 minutes was used to get Marcos Llorente into action. And as a midfielder. He was barely able to enter the game as Michael Oliver decreed the end of the game and the passage to extra time.
And those thirty minutes turned into a continuous attack by Spain towards Sommer's goal. More than against Elvedi, Akanji or Rodríguez, La Roja fought against its own despair as the minutes passed without the goal award. Alba, Oyarzabal and especially Gerard had it in a volley almost point-blank that Sommer cleared for a corner (101 '). And already in the second part of extra time in a shot by Llorente that Rodríguez blocked by throwing himself to the ground. But nothing, the goal that was so nice to us against Slovakia and Croatia, was now elusive. Sommer's saves seemed the worst omen of what awaited us in the penalty shoot-out. Even more so when Busquets threw the first shot to the post (sixth consecutive penalty missed by Spain). But Unai was there to give us a hand and then two until he reached the final launch that Oyarzabal put into the net.