Match date: 26 March 2013

The media continue to be foolish when it comes to critiquing Barcelona and Spain. The consistent mantra seems is that don’t do enough with the amount of possession that they have, which is strange because prior to playing this style of football, Spain were known as underachievers, since adopting it, they’ve won consecutive European Championships and the World Cup in between.

As with Barcelona earlier in the month, when Spain has one or two blips, the media again pounce and question whether this is the demise of the team and philosophy. The best examples being Barcelona against Milan and Real Madrid, Spain against France back in October and last week’s draw against Finland. The conclusion that the media reach is a lazy one and is daft.

With the media questioning them, Spain looked to beat France to climb to the Group I in UEFA qualifying. Vicente del Bosque named David Villa as his striker and with the absence of Jordi Alba, picked Monreal as the starting left back.

Didier Deschamps put out a relatively inexperienced lineup with only four players having more than 20 caps.

Down the Left, in Two Acts

Despite Jordi Alba, the scorer of Spain’s brilliant second goal in the Euro 2012 final, being out, Spain still found plenty of freedom down the left side of the pitch in Arsenal’s most recent signing, Nacho Monreal.

Andres Iniesta lined up on the let side of Spain’s front three, but unlike at Barcelona, when he is usually put out there when Fabregas is playing in the midfield three, Iniesta had plenty of room to operate inside and as he came inside, it allowed Monreal to use the width on the left side and he got forward very well. France’s Jallet was usually left to deal with Monreal running from deep as well as Iniesta popping up in the space between and in front of him and Varane. This was the result of Valbuena, who normally plays in a more central attacking midfield role for Marsaille, so he naturally wanted to drift inside to get on the ball and did so more effectively than either Matuidi or Cabaye did, but it left the right side of France’s defense overexposed.

Spain’s first opportunity came 5 minutes in when Iniesta and Monreal combined well on the left with Monreal making a run in behind the defense and getting to the byline before pulling the ball back to Xavi who should have scored. It wasn’t the only time that Monreal caused problems though as Spain’s goal came from him getting the best of Jallet and putting a dangerous cross into the six yard box which eventually found the back of the net.

While Jallet got forward in support well himself, France found their best opportunities coming from Ribery on the left side of attack. Arbeloa usually had a lot of space to get forward as Evra was occupied by Pedro and Ribery didn’t track that well, but when France got the ball, Ribery was always there for an outlet and was about as high as Benzema much of the time.

Ribery dribbled well at Arbeloa and would usually require either Pique or Busquets to get pulled out of possession, opening up opportunities for Benzema to drift to the left and provide space for Cabaye and Valbuena to offer later support. His pace was also a worry for Spain as we saw when Valbuena played a ball over the top that Ribery touched behind Pique and created an opportunity for himself which Valdes saved well.

Deschamps’ Selection and Style

It’d be easy to look at the team sheet for France and criticize a relatively inexperienced lineup, but the likes of Pogba, despite his harsh red card, and Varane put in good performances for the French. The selection of Benzema was put into question though as he hasn’t been at his best when playing for the national team and didn’t make that much of an impact tonight, while Deschamps only opted to bring on Oliver Giroud in the closing minutes of the match.

Under Laurent Blanc, France were playing very attractive football and against Spain in Euro 2012, despite losing in the end, still looked to play a more possession-based style and pressed Spain a bit more than tonight under Deschamps. When defending, France looked like a 4-1-4-1, with Pogba as the one between the two backs of four, but the space between the backs of four was very tight so it mostly became a 4-5-1. France were willing to absorb the pressure and try to catch Spain on the counter.

Deschamps made changes in the second half, bringing on Menez which allowed Valbuena to push inside and have a freer role and allowed France some more width on the right side of their attack and in the final quarter hour of the match, France looked a much better side than they had for most of it.

On the night, Spain completed three times more passes than France and kept the ball for 75% of the game and were unlucky not to have three more goals through Xavi and Iniesta and a penalty appeal by Pedro.

Conclusion

Spain responded to their critics and even played a bit more direct at different stages of the game, trying to find Pedro and Villa with balls over the top of the French defense and introduced Jesus Navas with about a half hour to play to really add pace and directness on the right side of their attack.

It was a game that Spain dominated, but still looked at odds with counter attacking situations and set pieces, two of which France could have scored on through Varane and Evra.

Deschamps needs to get France to keep hold of the ball more and looked to attack their opponents as they did under Blanc and think about how to get the best out of Valbuena in a central area and Benzema as the striker.