Euro 2020: Spain face Sweden amidst Covid-19 chaos
Updated On: 14 June, 2021 08:20 AM IST | Madrid | AFP
At La Cartuja in Seville on Monday, only Jordi Alba will remain from the Euro success nine years ago, with Sergio Ramos cut and Sergio Busquets self-isolating after testing positive for Covid last weekend.
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Spain boss Luis Enrique. Pic/AFP
After a week without training and three years of upheaval, Spain head into their Euro 2020 opener against Sweden on Monday determined to leave the past behind but unsure about what comes next. Luis Enrique was appointed to ring the changes in the aftermath of the 2018 World Cup, when going out on penalties to Russia had made it three consecutive failures to reach the quarter-finals of a major tournament. The conclusion in the wake of defeat in Moscow was clear -- the historic crop of 2008 to 2012 had grown old and the style that placed Barcelona and Spain at the vanguard of football was painfully out of date. At La Cartuja in Seville on Monday, only Jordi Alba will remain from the Euro success nine years ago, with Sergio Ramos cut and Sergio Busquets self-isolating after testing positive for Covid last weekend.
And yet while the names bear almost no resemblance to what went before, Spain`s fresh mix of promising youngsters and high-end performers arrive without any real sense of what now fills the void. Since the last World Cup, 61 players have played for Spain`s senior team as the desire for a clean slate under Luis Enrique and, briefly, Robert Moreno, meant opportunities were spread far and wide. But a crystallisation of those ideas never really materialised, meaning even the most forensic observers are struggling to predict who will start Monday`s opener in Group E, which also includes Poland and Slovakia. Some of the biggest question marks hang over the most important positions, with Luis Enrique refusing to confirm if Athletic Bilbao`s Unai Simon will play in goal, ahead of David de Gea and Brighton`s Robert Sanchez.
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