Spain’s remarkable streak of ball possession ends at Euro 2024 against Croatia

BERLIN (AP) — More hungry for the ball, Spain won a match by playing unlike Spain.

After La Roja beat Croatia 3-0 at Euro 2024 on Saturday, the match statistics showed something extremely rare: Spain had just 46% possession.

Statistics analyst Opta said it was the first time in 136 competitive matches that Spain had less of the ball than their opponents. Opta said this had not happened since the Euro 2008 final against Germany, which Spain won 1-0, also with 46% possession.

This includes World Cups, European Championships, Confederations Cups and the Nations League.

“The important thing is to win and play well, not possession statistics,” Spanish midfielder Fabián Ruiz said after scoring one goal and setting up another against Croatia.

It’s a remarkable change of direction for a team that had become synonymous with possession, almost obsessed with retaining the ball above all else. This strategy has served Spain well. Spain won the 2010 World Cup under coach Vicente del Bosque and then Euro 2012 as defending champions, both dominating possession.

The passing style became known as tika-taka, championed by Spanish coach Luis Aragonés before del Bosque took over, and borrowing heavily from the style practiced by Barcelona at the time.

But when the passing style perfected by the great midfielders Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta stopped winning titles, their successors passed the ball even more with diminishing returns.

At the last two World Cups, Spain was eliminated in matches in which they completed more than 1,000 passes and none of their players scored. It has lost on penalties twice, to host nation Russia in 2018, and to surprise side Morocco in 2022.

Those defeats stung, and new Spain coach Luis de la Fuente has revolutionized the team’s priorities since taking over from Luis Enrique after the 2022 World Cup.

De la Fuente highlighted these new strengths after Saturday’s encouraging start to Euro 2024.

“One of our virtues is great versatility and real tactical options as the matches progress,” De la Fuente said. “I think we are transforming this national team into something with many options. We can have possession and build attacks or be quick on the counter-attack, and that’s something we can be happy about.

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AP Euro 2024: https://apnews.com/hub/euro-2024

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