Luis de la Fuente’s Spain moves at an overwhelming pace, a rare and happy mixture of effectiveness and beauty, of unattainable numbers and full enjoyment. From Georgia, where she scored again, she was transported to next summer’s World Cup, which can only be deprived of by a crazy accident that should begin with a 0-7 defeat or similar next Tuesday against Turkey in La Cartuja in Seville. Not even that would be definitive, because La Roja would still have the possibility of a play-off. It is a scenario closer to fiction for the trajectory of a team that seems tuned to write a legend. From the numbers or the emotions that his game provokes. It’s the same.
0
Giorgi Mamardashvili, Saba Goglichidze (Guram Kashia, min. 45), Giorgi Gocholeishvili, Luka Lochoshvili, Vladimer Mamuchashvili, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Iuri Tabatadze (Giorgi Kvernadze, min. 56), Otar Kiteishvili, Zuriko Davitashvili (Giorgi Abuashvili, min. 84), Anzor Mekvabishvili (Giorgi Tsitaishvili, min. 70) and Budu Zivzivadze (Giorgi Kvilitaia, min. 71)
4
Unai Simón, Pedro Porro (Marcos Llorente, min. 45), Pau Cubarsí, Aymeric Laporte, Marc Cucurella, Mikel Merino (Fermín López, min. 61), Martín Zubimendi, Fabián Ruiz (Pablo Barrios, min. 61), Álex Baena, Ferran Torres (Yéremy Pino, min. 79) y Mikel Oyarzabal (Borja Iglesias, min. 70)
Goals
0-1 min. 10: Oyarzabal. 0-2 min. 21: Martín Zubimendi. 0-3 min. 34: Ferran Torres. 0-4 min. 62: Oyarzabal
Referee Benoit Bastien
yellow cards
Merino (min. 56)
In Tbilisi Spain: they chained 30 competitive matches without losing, more than ever, undefeated since De la Fuente’s second appointment on the bench. The team, managed by Zubimendi and boosted by Oyarzabal’s goals, maintains a flight towards the next World Cup that seems unattainable: in this qualifying phase they have scored 19 goals without conceding any in five games that have been five football exhibitions, warnings to the rest of the planet.
This Spain does not miss anyone. Not even Luis de la Fuente, with Carvajal, Le Normand, Rodri, Pedri, Nico and at the last minute Huijsen. Its machinery is so well adjusted that it crushes and dazzles in almost any circumstance. He is no longer even bothered by the old enigma of armored defences. Georgia decided to press far back again, around the Mamardashvili area, ready for a day of union resistance with the small hope of one day finding Kvaratskhelia on the run, always closely guarded. At the Boris Paichadze national stadium the 1-7 defeat that La Roja gave them two years ago was still stinging, precisely the night Lamine debuted. But almost nothing works against De la Fuente’s creation.
The approach to these fortresses is not proposed as in the past, carrying the ball from side to side, patiently skirting the wall. Spain plays in this era with devastating courage. Always forward. This time, with Merino embedded between the lines very close to Oyarzabal at the top, and with Fabián also sailing among the Georgian peloton. La Roja always had the ball tied up, and made it travel a lot vertically, cutting through the crowd like a knife. This is how Laporte found a run from Baena into the area, from where he put a cross to the far post. Ferran tried to return the play to the middle and the VAR found that he had touched Gocholeishvili’s arm. Oyarzabal got the penalty right.
It was just the beginning of the download. The voracity of this selection is endless. He does not agree to share the ball. They went in droves to press the few times they fell at the feet of the Georgians, who found it extremely difficult to link three passes, a mirage to have time in the other field. They were harassed without pause, monitoring pressures and assaults, insistent pecks from forwards, wingers and midfielders. And even from the midfielder.
Fabián put a vertical pass through the center with the first touch and Zubimendi appeared in the area alone with Mamardashvili. He lifted it delicately over the goalkeeper and scored the second. The weight of the Arsenal footballer has not stopped growing since Rodri’s absences began. Without the Ballon d’Or, Zubimendi manages La Roja’s metronome with ease and looks more and more towards the goal.
The third came the same way as the first: another pass filtered through the left channel, this time by Baena in the run of Oyarzabal, who put the ball in the center, where Ferran pushed it into the net. Three shots on goal and three goals. Spain again in scorching mode.
With everything done early, it gave a brief respite to Georgia, who visited the other side, although these were harmless excursions. The most dangerous thing was a very distant shot that Unai Simón slept on his chest. Then De la Fuente renewed the momentum by bringing in Barrios and Fermín. They accelerated again, Ferran put a cross that fell from some upper layer of the atmosphere and Oyarzabal tamed it and placed it at the base of the post, far from Mamardashvili, who did deactivate a one-on-one with Borja Iglesias and a fabulous volley from Baena.
It never seems enough to this record-breaking Spain that is already looking avidly at the World Cup despite the match that remains on Tuesday and especially the Finalissima in March against Argentina, the last champion in Qatar.
