You may have heard this one before. It was noisy in Seville, but the roof was never truly raised at La Cartuja, the sound that lingered from Spain’s opening game at Euro 2020 instead the whistles of supporters who had watched their team dominate possession, complete 918 passes for 85% of possession, setting a new tournament record, but just not find a way through.
Before them was a tight, defensive organised Swedish team satisfied with the final score – a team Luis Enrique described as having “decided to defend and base everything on long balls” – which helped to explain it, as did a goalkeeper who made two wonderful saves, but there was familiarity in the frustration too. Only six members of this Spain squad played at the last World Cup in Russia, where they were knocked out by the hosts despite playing a thousand passes in Moscow, but some of the issues remain.
