Spain defeated Albania 1-0 in Dusseldorf on Monday to secure their position as winners of Group B and the first team to win all three games at EURO2024.
Ferran Torres’ terrific finish in the 13th minute was the only goal of the game, with Albania putting in a spirited second half performance which was, ultimately, in vain.
Albania’s defeat signals the end of the road for their tournament, but also guarantees England’s progression to the round of 16.
As it happened
With 10 changes from the team that dismantled Italy last week, Spain were never going to play quite as fantastically. Already qualified for the knockout stages yet again, this was more an opportunity for Luis de la Fuente to give some of the fringe players a chance to get some minutes. They didn’t exactly look like fringe players, though.
No surprises here: Spain dominated the ball. 59% of it, to be precise. But this is a curious rendition of La Roja. After defeating Croatia 3-0 on matchday one, there was a shift in how they were playing; they didn’t have most of the ball. They were direct and dynamic perhaps than we’ve ever seen in the recent history of the national team. But then Italy happened, and it was Spanish business as usual; they had all the ball.
Today, they were somewhere in between; they kept the ball well, but there was an element of real directness. The bulk of their chances came from Alejandro Grimaldo, whose crosses found both the heads of Ferran Torres and Joselu, and the feet of Dani Olmo and Mikel Merino, all to no avail. His opposite number Jesús Navas was up to similar tricks, setting up chances for Dani Olmo and Merino in what was all but a mirror image.
Embed from Getty ImagesTheir gameplan was pretty simple: nice patterns of play to keep the ball away from Albania (which they did very well) before hitting one of the fullbacks to cross it into the area or pull it back for a midfielder, hence the chances for Merino and Olmo. But none of those chances, not in the first half anyway, found excellent efforts at goal. Grimaldo had an annoying habit of putting the ball in a tad too deep, meaning Ferran Torres and Joselu had to work very hard to divert their efforts on target.
Albania, to their credit, worked tooth and nail to hang on as much as they could; centre back partnership Berat Djimsiti and Arlind Ajeti were forced into blocking close-range efforts on multiple occasions. But they couldn’t hold out forever and, in fact, they could only hold out for 13 minutes.
The goal was totally different to the aforementioned crossing-based gameplan, but it was hardly a typical Spanish goal; instead, the ball went from back to front in only two passes.
It started with Aymeric Laporte, who sprayed a gorgeous cross-field pass out to Dani Olmo on the right. He turned, looked up, and slipped a terrific ball through to Ferran Torres who had made an excellent, excellent run. With it, he caught Ajeti totally off balance, and was able to place his finish into the far corner without wasting time for a first touch.
Embed from Getty ImagesIt was so incisive, it was a hot navaja through Albanian butter, and chiefly, it was so direct. Abundant in quality, yes, but typically Spanish? Not quite.
But this isn’t Vicente del Bosque’s Spain – it isn’t even Luis Enrique’s Spain. This Luis de la Fuente’s Spain, and they are uniquely tactically flexible. They can play like they did against Croatia, or they can play how they did against Italy, and have done for the last decade and a half. Tonight, they did both.
When Albania did get the ball, they really struggled to do anything constructive with it. There was a moment in the 39th minute when Nedim Bajrami, one of the more typically threatening Albania players, picked up the ball on the break and ran and ran and ran and… lost it. No fewer than three Spanish players crowded him out because he could do just that; run up a dead end. It felt, particularly in the first half, that Albania didn’t have too much of an attacking plan.
No surprise to learn, then, that they didn’t take their first shot until the 45th minute, when Kristijan Asllani fired an effort from the edge of the area. It was well struck, but competently saved by David Raya.
Embed from Getty ImagesThat chance came right before half time, and the next would come almost immediately after – but this one didn’t go Albania’s way. No shocks that Alejandro Grimaldo was again involved again and no shocks that it was a cross into the area. This time, he found Joselu who, back to goal, attempted an audacious overhead kick, but couldn’t guide it on target. He was desperate for his tournament goal today – but, ultimately, it never quite came.
Spain’s real issue was that they didn’t really get out of first gear, and that became more and more clear throughout the second half because they allowed Albania to grow into the game. For much of the second half, Albania were the team applying goalward pressure.
In many ways, Spain got lucky. Sylvinho’s side had shot after shot after shot but most had one thing in common: they were speculative.
50 minutes in and Asllani from outside the box; 65 minutes in and Asllani shoots from outside the box; 69 minutes in and Asllani shoots from outside the box; 77 minutes in and Asllani shoots from outside the box. Notice a theme? Well, Kristijan Asllani certainly didn’t, because none of those efforts troubled Raya.
There was one big chance that he probably shouldn’t have been allowed to save. Armando Broja, introduced in Ray Manaj’s place in the second half, was played in behind by an excellent quick free kick in the 64th minute. The ball was bouncing, and he instinctively tried to lob the Arsenal shot stopper, but he reacted in a flash and leapt to meet the shot. Had he not been so elastic then, Albania would have found their equaliser
Embed from Getty ImagesThe beautiful thing about never leaving first gear is you can fall asleep at the wheel and, if you’re lucky, you’ll get away unharmed. That was Spain’s second half performance today. In all fairness to them, if you can win a game with your second-string side with relative comfort despite not playing that well, it is a good indication of just how good they can be when they do shift up the gears.
With no Albania equaliser to be found, Spain have advanced to the knockout stages as winners of Group B and the first team to win all three of their matches. The last time they won all three group stage matches at the EUROs was in 2008, and that didn’t go too badly for them in the end. There’s no reason, with their best 11, that they can’t do the same again this year.
For Albania, they leave with their heads held high. They pushed Spain in the second half and leave EURO 2024 with a point and an impression left. Written off by so many and stuck in the group of death, they showed they deserve a seat at the European Championship table.
You can keep up with all the drama that unfolds throughout the rest of the tournament here at FromTheSpot.
The lineups
ALB: Strakosha; Mitaj, Djimsiti, Ajeti, Balliu; Asllani, Ramadani, Bajrami, Laçi, Asani; Manaj
ESP: Raya; Grimaldo, Laporte, Vivian, Navas; Merino, Zubimendi, Oyarzabal, Olmo, Torres; Joselu