England punish Spanish complacency

Mike Martin on the UEFA Under-21 Championship   @thefootietweet

In first half stoppage time, you could hear the crowd whoop in delight as Kyle Walker, the England U21 right back, threw a step-over before racing past two Spanish players and putting in a dangerous cross.  Spain, for all their superior ball retention, did not have a player with this ability to penetrate the opposition.  And this was a defender.

It has become far too easy to eulogize about Spain’s ability to keep the ball.  But what use is possession if you can’t do anything with it?  Sometimes analysis of a team’s performance is coloured by preconceptions of their playing style.  Were England to dominate possession in any match to that extent but have nothing more to show for it than a dodgy goal bundled in from a corner, such praise would not be forthcoming.

England, mercifully, managed to do what Chile, Portugal, Paraguay, Germany and Holland could not at the 2010 World Cup: punish Spain’s inability to turn possession into goals.  For long periods last night, Spain rolled the ball idly among themselves but only rarely tested England’s goalkeeper Frank Fielding.

Spain had little up front except Ander Herrera’s ability to steer a bad Javi Martínez header in at the back post with his hand.  England’s defence played well; Phil Jones and Chris Smalling each looking level-headed and able to play out from the back.  In attack, Danny Welbeck and Daniel Sturridge both looked threatening.

It was in midfield where England floundered, with Hamburg defender Michael Mancienne busking as a holding midfielder alongside Jordan Henderson and between two wingers in Tom Cleverley and the erratic Danny Rose.  The equalizer, when it eventually came, followed the introduction of England’s best two players, Scott Sinclair and Jack Rodwell, both mysteriously left on the bench by Stuart Pearce.

England’s goal was as illegitimate as Spain’s – Welbeck was clearly offside when receiving Walker’s pass – but it came thanks to a brilliant piece of skill from the Manchester Utd forward.  He pirouetted elegantly on the ball, controlling it and setting his position in one movement, before calmly passing the ball past David de Gea in the manner of a nonchalant Argentine inside forward.

Spain produced no such moment of decisive quality and goodness knows they had plenty of opportunities.  Time after time their extended periods of passing were ended by a timely challenge from Jones or Smalling, a cross straight into Fielding’s hands or by Adrián López overplaying a through ball over the by-line.  Just after the hour, Ander wasted a glorious chance by umming and erring on the edge of the penalty area.  It was an error typical of the Spanish performance; he forgot to shoot.

The match left us in no doubt as to who the favourites are to win Group B.  The Czech Republic.  Earlier in the evening they defeated Ukraine 2-1 with two well-taken goals by Borek Dockal; Maksym Bilyi’s late consolation flattered the opposition.

On Saturday, Belarus and Iceland opened the tournament in a near empty stadium.  Iceland were mysteriously well fancied for this tournament – though not, presumably, any more – but succumbed to two late goals.  In the second Group A match, Switzerland – by a distance, the best team in the tournament on the evidence of the opening weekend – beat the hosts Denmark 1-0 with a fine individual goal by Xherdan Shaqiri.

The game had been billed as a contest between Shaqiri, Switzerland’s left-footed right winger, and Christian Eriksen.  Denmark’s number 10 is so well regarded that this was his Under-21 début; the 19-year-old Ajax playmaker went straight into the senior national side.  This was an excellent game belied by its low scoreline.  Had Shaqiri’s succession of long-range shots in the first half not all flown just wide, or Eriksen’s late free-kick not been well saved by Yann Sommer, it could have been a different story.