From the very day of his presentation as a Espanyol footballer, In January 2020, Raúl de Tomás set himself one of his ambitious challenges to emulate Raúl Tamudo, perhaps the most important player in the history of the club. What little the Madrid striker could imagine is that, if Luis Enrique gives him the alternative, he will have in his power the way to match the mythical ’23’ of Santa Coloma but with another shirt, that of the Spanish National Team.
Spain is played against Greece and Sweden direct qualification for the World Cup of Qatar-2022, in the same way as Between turbulences the access to the Eurocup was resolved 2008 when, on October 13, 2007, three indisputable Espanyol players made a decisive contribution to saving La Roja, in a meeting, before Denmark, who would also go down in history for becoming the birth of the ‘tiqui-taca‘.
It was his own Tamudo who would eliminate the suspense in one fell swoop, anxiety, that surrounded that Selection of a highly disputed Luis Aragones. The parakeet captain had come to Aarhus with an injury to David Villa and acquired the title after Fernando Torres broke his abductor in pre-match training.
Tamudo’s goal in the 13th minute, a accurate header, gave wings to Spain. His assistant was Iniesta, who formed the center of the field of that 4-1-4-1 together with Xavi Hernández, Cesc Fabregas, with Joaquín Sánchez on the left and David Albelda under his shelter, as a pivot.
But the icon of Espanyol would also have a leading role in the 0-2, a anthological target scored by Sergio Ramos in his attendance, which would be endorsed in the collective imagination for being the fruit of 75 seconds of combinatorial football, with 65 touches and 28 passes between nine players.
In the second half another two parrots entered the field, Albert Riera in minute 68 as a replacement for Joaquín, and Luis García in the 78 ‘ instead of Cesc. The end would be born, little by the end, the goal of the sentence, 1-3, just after Jon Dahl Tomasson put some emotion to the crash. Riera spliced a left foot that signed in the most aesthetic way possible so round night.
The rest, like that Denmark-Spain, is history. The National Team played the Eurocup, sublimated that ‘tiqui-taca’ and conquered the tournament, Luis Aragonés went from disputed to applauded, and the three representatives of Espanyol they sadly had to follow him on television as a result of the terrible second round of the team, with 12 points in 19 games in LaLiga. Now, when the balance must turn towards Qatar or on the way to the repechage, a Raúl de Tomás takes the witness of those Tamudo, Luis García and Riera whose pulse will not tremble.