Have been eight months Travel. A path that began in Granada and that ends in Sevilla. One more journey tortuous than expected and that threatened to leave us out of the World Cup. However, it is enough for the Spanish team to add today a point against Sweden to get a direct pass to the great football event (follow the game live on AS.com). A Qatar it will around Seville. It sounds weird, yes, but great adventures don’t usually follow a straight line.
Since last Thursday’s game ended in Athens, Luis Enrique and his coaching staff have wanted to make it clear that no need to think in the tie but only in victory. The word win is prescribed like paracetamol: breakfast, lunch and dinner. “We are worth the draw, but we will not speculate. We are going to play as always, without giving up our style, “the Asturian warned yesterday.
The players as well the they are clear because they know that, in case of betray your DNA and play what they do not know, that is, the draw, Sweden would have great part of the work done. And it is a rival that one cannot trust as this 2021 has made clear. In June, at the opening of the Eurocup, also at the La Cartuja stadium, which today is the scene of the duel, those of Janne Andersson were a rock before which La Roja crashed and crashed. He is the only opponent against whom we have not been able to see the door this year in an official match. And in September, in a match for the World Cup qualifying rounds to which we are now shelving, Spain fell 2-1 in Solna after seeing how Claesson and Isak traced Soler’s goal.
In none of those parties was present Zlatan Ibrahimovic, which puts a face on all Swedish sticker albums for a couple of decades. It is your password, for what it gives on the field and for what it gives away from it. Is about an emblem, but its fit in the starting eleven it has not been easy after being absent for a few months from the national team. The now Milan striker has been the target of the critics of the press of his country for the stumble last Thursday in Georgia (2-0). After that defeat, Sweden looks forced to win tonight in Seville to get a direct ticket to the World Cup.
Being communicating vessels, the swedish defeat allowed Spain, who did his homework and won in Greece, look at today’s game with another face. It is worth the tie, but what has been said is not sought. Luis Enrique will remain true to your 4-3-3, tattooed by fire, but it is to be expected (something that in the Asturian is exactly the opposite of what one expects) that he makes changes in the starting eleven. Everything points to what Jordi Alba and Busquets, the only two representatives of our historic hat-trick (Euro-World-Euro-Cup), come back to the team after his absence in Athens, where his posts were very well filled by Gayà and Rodri. The City midfielder kept the tempo of the game and in the last minutes even shared a handle with Busquets, that today can reach in internationals who now directs him at Barça, Xavi (133 games). Soler will fight for a position with Gavi, who could not finish the match in Athens after suffering a slap from an opponent that left him as Canelo Álvarez left Caleb Plant just a few days ago.
All in Sevilla, what, today recovers the taste of great football of selections with the announced full in La Cartuja. “With the public they are weaker and we stronger“, says Luis Enrique, who remembers with special affection the great atmosphere experienced in that same city in a match against Denmark that certified the qualification for the World Cup in the USA 94. It was 1-0. It only remains that the center of Goikoetxea and the auction of Iron Sarabia and Busquets sign it tonight. Or Carvajal and Morata. It’s the same.