Lovely stuff from Spain's Torres as Albania bid farewell
Spain's Ferran Torres scores his side's opening goal during a Group B match against Albania at Euro 2024. Picture: AP Photo/Martin Meissner
When did the reality of this contest drift in under the pyrotechnic haze?
Perhaps it was when Armando Broja missed Albania’s only clear chance four minutes after coming on, the hordes in ruby red having hounded Sylvinho to bring the frontman in. Perhaps it was in the split seconds where Broja had entered the fray but word filtered through that Luka Modric was raging against dying lights in Leipzig. Or perhaps the reality that this was not much of a contest at all was clear from Ferran Torres’ gorgeous 13th-minute opener.
Albania were never going to find two goals against the meanest defence in Euro 2024. Their best moment of incision came from a little pitch invader late on. And so, like Scotland the night before, they depart with the noise and fervour of their fans the memory which will linger.
Spain’s lasting power looks more formidable than before. Luis de la Fuente shuffled almost his entire deck yet saw the back-ups play patches of pretty and fluid stuff and then switch off because they could. To this point the tournament’s best team, they inflicted upon us its worst kit, head to toe in washed-out Toilet Duck yellow. That they could look good even in that tells a lot.
The night’s last word would sound out in the east, an Italian roar and shuffle the Group B standings one last time. Albania had already quietened by then.
The bubble of a major tournament is like those five days between Christmas and New Year’s rolled out to the edges of a month. It could be Thursday, could not. It could be June, could not. But the beginning of Germany’s working week told us this was, in fact, Monday. The ubiquitous presence of a cluster of forlorn Scots at every train platform up and down the Rhine-Ruhr region reminded that we’ve reached a time of endings too, some of them cruel.
With tournament weather finally pouring down this is no time to leave so Albania came to Dusseldorf hunting a different denouement. With an early goal against Italy and a late one against Croatia, Sylvinho’s side had maybe made the group of death a more complex conundrum. Matters in Leipzig would, well, matter but ultimately their work was here. They’d mostly shirk it. They missed Mirlind Daku, who’d got caught up in the noise last time out, banned for joining in with nationalist, anti-Serb and anti-Macedonian chants.
Victory is a hard habit to hone and an easy one to kick. Yet even this soft tournament format demands coaches juggle between momentum and minding bodies. Clearly, de la Fuente leaned into the latter retaining only Aymeric Laporte as a starter. Among the 10 changes were late, late bloomer Joselu and Jesus Navas, the only Spaniard who knows what it takes to win one of these things.
The Albanian ultras seemed determined to remind the continent that this night was about them, unfurling a tifo and then lighting a boatload of distress flares. They were wildly jeering a stadium reminder about pyro usage while the Spanish were clearing their throats.
The first statement took just 13 minutes. After a pair of early headers whispered threat, Spain went back to the ground, their fertile terrain. Dani Olmo picked a pocket of space and was found by a deep through ball. He controlled turned and played a gorgeous assist all in one 180-degree split-second pivot, just a little mundane magic. Torres raced on to it and caressed it off a post and in. We could burn longer and better words but sometimes the simplest suffices — it was lovely stuff.
Not over-egging the pudding was a good policy because it was really hard to gauge how good the Spanish second-string were. At 38, Navas was dialling it back to 2012, Olmo was purring, Even in a brief moment Mikel Merino was reminding of Busquets. Call that a moment of realisation: don’t go too mad.
The scoreboard should have been skewing more Spain’s way but a final touch was lacking, Joselu bring his Britannia rather than Bernabéu boots. As long as it stayed just 1-0 Albanian dreams were alive even if their reality felt much closer to done. Just before the interval Kristjan Asllani finally unleashed a rasping drive which Raya saved well.
When Broja was introduced on the hour it finally did give them Albania a little bit of a spark. He ought to have had them aflame but from a quick free-kick he couldn’t connect true and Raya clawed it away. Asllani speculated some more but nothing truly threatened.
Having lost their own way, De la Fuente and Spain sought to underline that there was a context to this all as he brought in a pair of front-liners, Alvaro Morata and Lamine Yamal raising the tempo. Broja poked one last effort at goal for old time’s sake but that was that. Spain and Italy then. You reckon one will hang around longer.
Strakosha 7; Balliu 5, Djimsiti 6, Ajeti 5, Mitaj 4; Laci 5 (Berisha 70), Ramadani 5, Asllani 6; Asani 5 (Muci 81), Manaj 4 (Broja 59), Bajrami 5 (Hoxha 70).
Booked: BajramiÂ
Raya 7; Jesus Navas 8, Vivian 7, Laporte 7 (Le Normand 46, 6), Grimaldo 7; Zubimendi 7, Merino 6; Torres 7 (Yamal 72), Olmo 8 (Baena 84), Oyarzabal 7 (Lopez 62); Joselu 5 (Morata 72).
Goals: Torres (13).
Glenn Nyberg (SWE) 7
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
