After 242 minutes, added times included, 14 shots, five between the three suits and two assists, to Gerard Moreno, the best scorer of the season with his club in the ranks of the Spanish team, the sixth of all tournament participants, the goal is resisted in the Euro 2020.
His thirty goals among all competitions with him Villarreal Throughout the campaign, Europa League champions included, they are an undetectable trace in continental competition for the prolific scorer, without a goal in any of his four duels in this tournament, frustrated against the rival goal.
Holder and assistant against Poland, when he missed a penalty that could have made it 2-1 – he smashed it against the post – but before he gave it 1-0 to Alvaro Morata, and, before Slovakia, when none of the five goals of his selection carried his signature, but the pass from 0-2 scored by Aymeric laporte, the most unequivocal demonstration was the quarterfinal match against Swiss last Friday.
None of his six shots – three on goal, three off, some very clear, especially a volley in extra time – remedied his lack of punch in the European tournament, which he rebels with strength and with the undoubted memory that he has a goal, As he has reaffirmed throughout this season, already heading to the semifinals against Italy on Tuesday, because, among other things, he did score his penalty of the shoot-out.
“That is solved with more work and insisting with everything you do. You have to be mentally strong to have more chances. The first one who wants to score is me. Now I am more liberated because we have passed. But, I would be eating my head ”, admitted the attacker, who has chained five international matches without a goal.
“If Morata fails them, you impale him”
The last of the five goals in 15 games (one every three games) that he has scored with La Roja corresponds to 3-1 against Kosovo last March. He did not score in the quarter of an hour he played against Portugal, in the friendly on June 4, nor in the European Championship against Sweden (22 minutes); nor against Poland (68 minutes); nor against Slovakia (80 minutes); nor against Swiss, when he played 72 minutes and 24 seconds after substituting for Alvaro Morata.
“I switched to Álvaro, because the pressure he puts on us during all the matches is incredible and after 120 minutes in the previous tie against Croatia I understood that we needed a little more freshness. Gerard Moreno has come in, who has given us many things and has had many opportunities, “said Luis Enrique Martínez, the Spanish coach, in his speech before the radios at the end of this Friday's clash at the Saint Petersburg stadium.
“Luckily he has failed them Gerard Moreno, because if it fails Alvaro Morata you impale it. Gerard Moreno has failed them and nothing happens. Those who fail the chances are the ones who have them and I am very happy with what Gerard has done ”, said the coach, who almost always had him pulled to the extreme right.
It is striking that he is not among any of the seven footballers who have scored a goal in this Eurocup. Two have been achieved by Álvaro Morata, Pablo Sarabia and Ferran Torres; one has been achieved by César Azpilicueta, Aymeric Laporte, Mikel Oyarzabal and Jordi Alba, between his own goal or his own goal against Switzerland.
While, the '9' of Spain and Villarreal
equals his worst streak of the season. On only one occasion throughout the course he stayed in five games without beating the opposing goal, when between the end of April and the beginning of May last he chained five games, three in the League plus the semi-finals of the Europa League against him. Manchester City; a hitherto unknown lapse.
His zero goals in 14 shots of this Eurocup contrast with the three on average, outside or inside, that he needed to score a goal in the past LaLiga Santander. Among the three clubs, of five he has not transformed any, due to the two shots per goal that he averaged in the last Spanish championship, with a goal every 116 minutes. Now it adds up to more than double the time; the goal resists him in the European tournament.