Young, offensive and with scoring ability, Saúl Ñíguez and Dani Olmo They represent the present and the future of the Spanish team. The Champions League will face each other in the Leipzig-Athletic from this Thursday to two players of precocious evolution, whom rumors placed in the same team.
The 25-year-old Atlético pivot embodies the direct style that Luis Enrique wanted to impose on Spain during his first stage and will continue upon his return; the RB Leipzig midfielder, at the age of 22 and having overcome his adaptation to German football, which he reached in January Dinamo Zagreb Croatian, is one of the new values of “La Roja.”
Both point to the title in the clash for the semifinals of the Champions League to be played this Thursday at José Alvalade in Lisbon. Saúl, as a non-negotiable piece of the Argentine scheme Diego Pablo Simeone, He has only lost three games out of a possible 46, two by penalty and one by technical decision. He will play in the middle, probably accompanied by the Mexican Hector Herrera, with Koke Resurrection and the belgian Yannick Carrasco to the sides.
Dani Olmo has gradually gained the trust of Julian Nagelsmann, being a starter in seven of the last eight Bundesliga duels and increasingly focused on the midfielder, the place where his coach prefers him to avoid defensive tasks.
Saúl, to whom he gave the alternative of the 'Red' Julen lopetegui With 15 minutes in a friendly against Belgium in September 2016, he did not finish having a fixed position with the Gipuzkoan, nor did he play minutes with Fernando Hierro in the 2018 World Cup in Russia despite being in the squad.
Went with Luis Enrique Martinez when the Atlético midfielder became a fixture with Spain: he played five of the six duels led by the Asturian in his first stage in the national team with two goals and one assist. With Robert Moreno his quota fell: four starts from nine qualifying matches for the Eurocup, in which he only missed one call.
“He has unique conditions (…) He has a profile to play associative, as a team, more defensive, he has arrival. He has everything to be an important player in the national team, but he has a lot of competition, “he defined. Luis Enrique in September 2018, before a Spain-Croatia of the League of Nations in which the 'Roja' beat the world runner-up 6-0, with the first goal from Saúl.
On that path, to dazzle the Spanish coach, is Dani Olmo. The one from Terrassa had the alternative of the hand of Robert Moreno in a Spain-Malta in Cádiz in which he profited from his 24 minutes of play with a goal within the Spanish feast (7-0), and on his return Luis Enrique confirmed that he has it on the radar.
“We know him very well because when we made our calls, we brought in U21 players and Dani trained with us several times. He is a player that I like a lot, “said Luis Enrique in the presentation of his return to the Spanish team.
SAÚL'S STRIKE AGAINST GERMAN TEAMS
They not only share Saúl and Olmo the pleasure of Luis Enrique. Also the admiration of Julian Nagelsmann. “He is a superior footballer,” he said about the Elche in an interview in the German daily Bild. “It represents a lot what Atlético is,” added the young ideologue of this RB Leipzig, who at the age of 33 has ranked among the eight best clubs in Europe for the first time in its history.
The Teutonic coach will surely be very aware of the good performance that the rojiblanco midfielder usually offers against German teams in the Champions League, especially in the decisive phases of the ‘Champions’.
Although his first match against a German team was tremendously painful for the Elche -beat 1-0 against Bayer Leverkusen In the first leg of the last 16 of the 2014-15 season in which he suffered a blow to the kidney that made him play for months with a catheter and even consider removing it-, the following year he more than retaliated against Bayern Munich.
It was in the first leg of the semifinals, on April 27, 2016 in the now-defunct Vicente Calderón, when the Elche escaped from the mark of Thiago Alcantara, dodged the tarascadas of Juan Bernat and Xabi Alonso, made a bicycle before David Alaba and placed a darning at the base of the furthest stick to Manuel Neuer. A fundamental goal for Atlético to leave Bayern by the wayside Pep Guardiola, allowing him to fall 2-1 in Bavaria.
The following year, again in the second round and against Bayer Leverkusen, Saúl had the redemption of his blow to the kidney with a goal in the 2-4 win with which Atlético solved the crossing. And it has also marked the other great German: Borussia Dortmund, in the first goal of the two that Atlético did in the Wanda Metropolitano in the group stage last year (2-0), to avenge the 4-0 that received the rojiblanco team at Signal Iduna Park.
DANI OLMO, FROM DESEO ROJIBLANCO TO THREAT
The ironies of football will place a footballer in front of Atlético on Thursday who was placed in the orbit of the rojiblanco team on several occasions. There were those who put him one step away from the Metropolitan entity last summer, right after he became European U21 champion and best player in the final.
He was also linked to the rojiblanco team just eight months ago, during the transfer window in January. But Atlético had no salary space to undertake any incorporation if there was no exit, and only the Belgian arrived Yannick Carrasco under assignment agreement.
Rumors or realities, the truth is that it was RB Leipzig who took over the signing, in an operation valued by the Croatian media at 35 million euros between all concepts. His balance is 13 games, nine of them as a starter, four goals and one assist.
Only one of the two, Saúl or Olmo, will be able to compete in the semifinals in this ‘Final to Eight’ that the Champions League has organized in Lisbon to avoid the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic. In 90 or 120 minutes, the present and the future of the national team will be measured by a gap between the four best in Europe.