Spain 1-Greece 1 | Morata is not enough

It is not a match to go up to the cloud – the newspaper library gives me that it has become old -, on the contrary, it is a match to be erased immediately because the Eurocup is just around the corner and the penalties have to be shaken off as soon as possible. Spain ran into Greece and the qualifying rounds for the Qatar 2022 World Cup are complicated in the first few minutes. In four months we have gone from the festival against Germany to the disappointment of Granada. Too back and forth, now is the time for analysis and debate. But express debate. Georgia awaits on Sunday and in Tbilisi there is no margin for error.

The result was not good, but the picture is taking shape. Nothing ago, just a few months ago, the casting of Luis Enrique in his second stage as coach left us somewhat dislocated. We saw the brush strokes, but we had to take a couple of steps back to try to understand the painting in its entirety. Three goalkeepers with similar pedigree (Kepa, De Gea and Unai Simón), central exam to accompany Ramos (Pau Torres goes by note …), baton rotation (Busquets or Rodri) and player dancing and midfield positions upward with the false nine (Rodrigo, Aspas or Moreno) as a fashionable song. But now the painting can be seen, the abstract is already real. Luis Enrique traced yesterday the team that last November brought out the colors to Germany in La Cartuja (6-0). He could not do it one hundred percent due to the injuries of Sergi Roberto and Pau Torres, who were replaced by Marcos Llorente and Eric García. The rest, the same players from that recital in front of the Mannschaft that allows us to get our elbows in the bookmakers with a view to the next Eurocup.

The door was not opened to the debutants at the beginning, as the four (Robert Sánchez, Pedro Porro, Pedri and Bryan Gil) attended the opening whistle from the bench. But that is not why there was no surprise in the starting eleven. Our eyes went inevitably to the right side, with Marcos Llorente and his seven lungs next to the lime. He needs to be a referee and goalkeeper, everything will work out. He was a winger, but his tendency to climb, just down the same lane that Ferran Torres occupied a few meters above, made La Roja's attacks beat to that right side more than to the left, where Gayà and Olmo formed a dance couple.

Greece defended en bloc. It oscillated from left to right with Bakasetas as the central axis. In principle, the Trabzonspor player should be the offensive beacon escorted by Masouras and Limnios. John van’t Schip confessed in the previous one that he was aware that the rival would take the initiative, although that in itself he was not going to give up the ball. But the poker face gave him away. Against Spain one knows, yes or yes, that the ball is not negotiable. It is true that This Greece is not the one with Rehhagel's clenched fist, the one that surprised Europe with the continental title in 2004, but no matter how open it is, it is difficult for it to take the initiative.

So the Helena team had no choice but to endure the siege of Spain. Koke starred in the first dangerous chance with a double shot in the 13th minute. La Roja was armed with patience, with Ramos and Eric García initiating each of the attacks, sometimes a too predictable flight plan. Spain played and played, Greece waited and it was impossible to sink your teeth into the party. It had more nerve than a five-peseta steak, as our colleague José Antonio Espina would say. The game got muddled as the minutes progressed. A couple of aerial crashes, like Papadopoulos with Morata, lost balls, clashes like Rodri with Bakasetas … in short, a series of inaccuracies that slowed down the pace of the game, something that played blatantly against us. And we were so drugged that suddenly, a Dani Olmo right hand to the crossbar almost made us fall out of the chair. Such was the awakening that only a minute later the second dart arrived, this one with the goal as a prize. Koke received in three quarters, raised his head and served a gourmet pass to Morata, who controlled the ball with his chest and finished off with his left foot against an impotent Vlachodimos. To the Christian, come on, it is what has to train and play together with the king of the auction.

The goal, yes, did not alter Hellenic strategy one iota. The team remained anchored behind, which drew a scandalous distribution in the possession of the ball: 80% for Spain and 20% for Greece. Thus he came to rest and thus he turned from him. There was nothing new in the game, although there was in the line-ups with Siopis and Tzolis on the field replacing Limnios and Mantalos, while in La Roja Ramos gave up his place to Íñigo Martínez. Rest for the one from Beds (his body needs it), who adds one more match to the international caps bag: 179, just five from the world record of the Egyptian Ahmed Hassan.

And the Athletic center-back could not have a better debut in the game because in the 55th minute he committed a penalty. In the qualifying rounds there is no VAR, so the verdict of the Italian Marco Guida had no turning back. Debate, of course, there was, because the central defender of Ondárroa clears the ball and in his inertia hits with the studs on Masouras' leg. In my opinion, Íñigo may be keeping his leg up excessively. I do not know. A penalty that we could already baptize as Modric (similar to the one that was pointed out to the Croatian last weekend in Balaídos), but a penalty after all, unceremoniously transformed by Bakasetas.

You had to change the air, find another gear in a game that was too monotonous for the National Team. Luis Enrique bet big, with the single verses of Pedri and Bryan Gil replacing Olmo and Canales. And shortly after with Thiago and Oyarzabal instead of Koke and Ferran Torres. But the Greek wall did not give way. Only some foray to the left of Gil threatened to create a clear scoring chance. But that did not come. The only thing that came was the final whistle of a game that knocks us out of the game. How can you play so well against Germany and so poorly against Greece?