Less than a week before Luis de la Fuente (Haro, 1961) completes his first year as coach, Spain knows this Saturday in the majestic Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg the roadmap to follow on the road to the Berlin Olympics. , final point of a Euro Cup that will be played next year in 10 German cities between June 14 and July 14. A country that is recovering a great international football event since it hosted the 2006 World Cup. «I believe that we are in a position to fight to win, there are some teams that have the same level and are in that same situation. “Everything depends on small details and we have the potential to win the next Euro Cup like teams like England, Italy, Germany or France,” defends the Riojan coach after overcoming all the initial criticism.
With seven victories and a hazing at Hampden Park that put a damper on the pitcher’s service record, the numbers of Spain, the third highest scoring team in the classification with an average of more than three goals per game, offer the necessary optimism that will attend the German event within a new winning cycle that began with the Nations League crown last June against Croatia, one of the rivals to avoid in a poisoned draw full of traps in which La Roja will be in the hype of the illustrious. The raffle will put all the selectors on alert because it could be decisive for the aspirations of the big favorites, including Spain, which starts as seeded and will be present in pot number one. Along with De la Fuente’s team, Germany will be the host, Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal, De Bruyne’s Belgium, Bellingham’s England and Mbappé’s France, current runner-up in the world.
They will not be able to measure each other and that is always a kind of start, although it is true that the draw may not be entirely benign. The first is because there is at least one tournament champion in each of the remaining pots, an undoubted sign that a bad day by innocent hands can complicate anyone’s aspirations towards final triumph. What’s more, even within the play-off that will grant the three final places for the German event, there is another continental winner like Greece, which despite being in low times already demonstrated in the 2004 edition with Otto Rehhagel’s locks, that miracles footballers exist.
The continental competition will have 24 participants who will be divided into six different groups, where the pots have been distributed from the qualification phase. The best two in each group will advance to the round of 16 matches. From there, pure one-match playoffs until reaching the grand final on July 14.
On the second reel will be the rest of the best teams in the groups, where Denmark, champion in 1992, stands out along with Hungary, Turkey, Austria and the surprising Albania. In the third pot is the Czech Republic, continental winner in 1976, and the Netherlands, which won the crown in 1988; Along with them there are other teams such as Scotland, Slovenia and Slovakia, as well as a great ‘coconut’ such as Croatia. The veteran checkered team was on the verge of lifting the World Cup in Russia, losing in the final against France and in Qatar it was a semi-finalist. In the last of the pots, the fourth, there is the threat of Italy, which will defend the crown achieved in 2021 at Wembley after joining the privileged group ‘in extremis’. Serbia and Switzerland also await there. Little joke for the drum of the supposed Marias, which will be completed with the three teams that emerge from the play-offs in March.
Luis de la Fuente, who naturally acknowledges being a man of deep religious beliefs and confesses to seeking inspiration for his sporting decisions with the support of God, surely with faith asks the draw not to fall into what would be a group of death with Denmark, Croatia and Italy, and be kinder with one that contains Albania, Slovenia and some of the rest.
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