Contaminated with illusion. This is how Spain faces what will be the debut in the Eurocup . If the fans and the press are very skeptical about the performance that the Spanish team can give, Luis Enrique and his boys have found in the group the strength to do great things in a tournament with 11 venues spread throughout the continent and marked by the coronavirus pandemic. With the morale of the troops high after a tremendously difficult week, the national team wants to start on the right foot against Sweden .
Spain reaches the debut marked by what happened a week ago . Sergio Busquets’ positive for coronavirus has been the main protagonist in the last days of concentration of the Spanish team. Individualized training, isolation within the Las Rozas hotel, a ‘parallel bubble’ that has given a lesson in professionalism and commitment to the country and a scare that, luckily, only remained there. And it is that, every day the PCR tests that the players and the rest of the expedition underwent were negative, except on Tuesday, when Diego Llorente gave a positive result that forced him to go home, although he finally stayed in a false alarm.
Spain faces this first game with doubts in the line-up . And the feeling is that they will remain throughout the tournament. The first in the goal, where Unai Simón aims to start , although his presence can not be confirmed under the sticks. In defense, on the right side it is normal for Luis Enrique to repeat with Marcos Llorente, while on the left-handed flank Gayá starts with an advantage over Jordi Alba. The centrals would be Pau Torres and Laporte. In the middle, Rodrigo will play Busquets , while in the creation, if the Asturian repeats the eleven he formed against Portugal, it would be Fabián and Thiago who would start from the beginning. Finally, up front, everything suggests that Ferran Torres will start on the right, Dani Olmo or Sarabia on the left with Álvaro Morata as the main offensive reference.
Sweden arrives with casualties, but it is dangerous
Sweden comes to this debut ready to be a tough and competitive rival for a new one , and that knows how to compensate with its defined characteristics of a more direct game and, above all, its good physique, the theoretical technical superiority of the triple European champion, that he will also have to battle with the heat that is expected at that time in Seville and that may be a determining factor.
Janne Andersson has also been deprived of a major player by the coronavirus like Juventus winger Dejan Kulusevski. Neither will midfielder Mattias Svanberg be from the game because of the virus.
The Scandinavian team, quarterfinalist in the last World Cup and that also lost the magic that the return of Ibrahimovic was going to give him, finally injured, will have Txuri-urdin Alexander Isak as the main option above a team that in their last five games only has conceded a goal, although all of them against opponents of less weight than Spain.
The heat of Seville
Spain and Sweden will also face the heat that will be in Seville, although it seems that by the time of the match it will lose intensity. It is expected that when the ball rolls through the green of La Cartuja the thermometer will read 29 degrees, with a humidity of 44% and a thermal sensation of 27º. It will be hot, yes, but it will not be as suffocating as expected for the next matches that the national team will have to play in the Andalusian capital.
