What began with the best intentions ended with Gerard PIque slamming left-footed shots at defenders and then a defeat by penalties – a reward to Russia for their stout defending and a lesson to the Spanish. It was a game in which Spain completed over 1000 passes but not a single decisive one. Boosted by nationalistic fervour and heaven knows what else, Russia locked held out La Roja and then knocked them out in a game that exposed so many of the Spanish side’s flaws.
In an encounter that was, for almost two hours, utterly unspectacular, Spain played dominant football in-keeping with the stereotype of the tiki-taka generation, though it was so inefficient that it also managed to be in-keeping with the stereotype of Spanish society.
Andres Iniesta’s absence had placed a creative onus on Isco that he is good enough to cope with but there was something of a stylistic clash, with the Real Madrid man not quite operating in the same way as Iniesta and that clearly affected Spain’s ability to slice through Russia rather than just play in front of them.
Isco was very involved, he had lots of the ball and roamed free into dangerous positions but he also slowed attacks and created few goalscoring chances. There was almost a feeling that more of Spain’s younger generation, those who are more in tune with his stylistic quirks, could have been included to strike the right dynamic. Saul, who has been sadly absent from the tournament, might have made more sense than Sergio Busquets as a complementary piece with Russia posing so little threat. Thiago might have been a better mesh with David Silva