On June 3, recently joined the Spanish team, César Azpilicueta admitted that he had “a thorn in the tooth” with the national team, because he had never managed to “demonstrate” the level of Chelsea… until this Eurocup, suddenly entrenched in the eleven, suddenly a scorer and at the level expected to overcome the expressive desire of his previous calls.
“As a team we have not managed to take that step and they have not finished those tournaments the way we wanted. And now is a new opportunity. I really want to be able to show what I have shown at Chelsea for so many years, “he said at the time. Wanda Metropolitano, I'm already heading to a tournament that I didn't even know.
Nor in Brazil 2014 nor in France
2016 nor in russia 2018 he had advanced beyond the round of 16 – in the first stage he fell in the first phase and in the next two in that same round in which he defeated Croatia on Monday – nor had he scored any goals. Nor had it ever done so in its 26 previous games.
Until this Monday, until minute 57 of a stressful meeting, crazed before and after, which seemed to accommodate the head of the right-back of the Spanish team -central in Chelsea-, in a play whose prominence was absolute, from start to finish, since he spotted it Unai Simon at the start and from when he crossed the field with a leadership with which he crossed lines until he headed the goal.
The service was from Ferran torres, measured, for the irruption of a footballer who has also responded to the ‘surprising’ call at the last minute of Luis Enrique Martinez, because no forecast would have calculated his presence at Euro 2020 a year ago, absent as he had remained from the national team's plans since November 18, 2018, when he had played his last match …
Until the call of last May 24, the final one for the continental tournament, among the 24 chosen by the coach for a position to debate, the right-back, from which he reappeared on June 23 in the win 0-5 from Spain to Slovakia in the stadium of The Cartuja of Seville. His return after 2 years and 7 months.
Or the beginning of an irruption in the ownership that confirmed his second consecutive meeting this Monday against Croatia and that he had not enjoyed a competition of this dimension for seven years, since the disaster in Brazil in 2014, when his team was eliminated in just two games in the first round.
From that moment, when he played the start and the full duel against the Netherlands then, now the Netherlands, in the thunderous 1-5 in Salvador de Bahia and later in the final 0-2 defeat against Chile in Rio de Janeiro, Azpilicueta He had only played 9 minutes between the Euro 2016 in France and the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Nothing else had that route in the previous edition of the continental tournament. He did not play against the Czech RepublicAfterwards, he did have those nine minutes in the defeat of Turkey (3-0) and disappeared again from the line-ups against Croatia and Italy. Also in Russia 2018, where he did not jump onto the pitch in any of the four games.
Substitute at the beginning of the current European competition, with the election of Marcos Llorente placeholder image -A right inside that can play in many places but his most natural position today is that- for the right-handed back for Luis Enrique, everything changed for him against Slovakia: he entered the eleven, played 77 minutes and established himself.
The most obvious demonstration was his repeated ownership before Croatia, when he scored his first goal as an international, when he removed at least a part of that thorn that he has with the national team, which still has the final pull, the collective, that of being champion of Europe as has been this course with your club.