Spain’s direct central midfielders unlocked Germany – they are the team to beat

Under Luis de la Fuente, Spain is a different beast.

The nation that dominated international football 15 years ago with its commitment to slow, methodical possession play has not entirely changed its identity. After all, it is a team that plays 4-3-3, uses a high defensive line, has good central defenders who play the ball well and a solid midfield that can distribute the ball well.

But they have a different mentality: they want to go faster forward, they want to attack with real width, they want to use a good centre-forward. The strikers were praised in the group stage. The 2-1 extra-time victory in the quarter-final against Germany, a meeting between the two best teams in the tournament, was entirely down to the central midfielders.

Spain had a great chance in the first minute. Nico Williams, who had the best individual performance of the group stage in the 1-0 win over Italy, moved down the left and sent the ball to the feet of striker Alvaro Morata. With his back to goal, Morata looked up to find the two central midfielders, Pedri and Fabian Ruiz, running towards him to support him. Morata had two options. He passed the ball back to Pedri, whose low shot was saved.

That set the tone. These players were used as number 8s in Spain’s 4-3-3. In the classic Spanish team that won this tournament in 2012 and the World Cup two years before, the equivalents were Xavi and Xabi Alonso. Technically, they played in a 4-2-3-1, with Xavi as number 10 and Alonso as a defensive midfielder. But the fact is that the players would not have broken through to the edge of the box to try to score in the first minute. Their approach would have been to drop back, protect themselves from counterattacks and use the ball carefully.

Pedri, unfortunately, had to leave the pitch shortly after being hit by Toni Kroos. But it worked out well for Spain. His replacement was Dani Olmo, who was magnificent in the final group game, a 1-0 win over Albania with a much-revamped team. Given his performance and Olmo’s versatility, he would probably have been Spain’s first substitute if Morata or one of the wingers also got injured. But by coming on as a number 8, Spain were even more forward-thinking.

The pattern of the first minute continued: every time a Spanish winger dribbled forward, Olmo and Ruiz would head towards the box. Here, with Lamine Yamal on the ball and Morata having taken off to the left, Olmo briefly became a centre-forward, driving into the box, while Ruiz was free to play a pass back and had a decent strike from defence.

But it was Olmo who carried the charge for Spain. And while he was a central midfielder on paper, he played more like a number 10, and sometimes a second striker. On three occasions he went on a run and forced Germany to fight desperately to stop him.

Here Morata drifted to the right and Olmo saw an opportunity to force his way into space. Morata played the ball towards him, Olmo’s speed allowed him to reach the ball before Antonio Rudiger, and the centre-back was forced to cynically tackle him to bring him down. Rudiger was booked, ruling him out of a possible semi-final.

Here’s a similar incident. Olmo picked up a loose ball in the centre circle, passed it straight to Morata and then charged in behind. This time it was Jonathan Tah who sprinted forward to make a clumsy challenge on the last man, narrowly recovering the ball.

It is worth noting that Olmo was constantly trying to receive the ball from the keeper. Spain are renowned for playing from the back. But here, Unai Simon chose the former option, with Olmo simply not being able to get the ball back into the net – it would have been heading towards goal.

Here’s Olmo acting as a target man – another long pass from Simon causes him to spill to Williams, although the ball has gone out of play.

And here is the third example of a desperate foul on Olmo. Another long pass from Simon, this time to Morata, is deflected to Olmo. He runs towards goal, but Kroos holds him back.

The positivity of the central midfielders also played a major role in both goals.

Here’s Olmo’s first goal. When Morata came deep to tie the play and set up Yamal, previous Spanish teams might have been left without anyone in the number 9 position. But this Spain did things differently, and with Olmo on the opposite side, Ruiz was alongside Morata, occupying German midfielder Robert Andrich while Yamal dribbled down the right – note his head turned towards Ruiz, watching him closely.

But it was a two-man duo. With Andrich focusing on Ruiz, the other central midfielder, Olmo, can make a run in front of them, meet Yamal’s ball inside and guide the ball towards goal.

After Florian Wirtz’s goal forced extra time, Spain won the match late in the game, again thanks to their positivity.

When Olmo won the ball on the left flank, he had Marc Cucurella running down the flank and Ferran Torres sprinting down the opposite flank. More importantly, he had three different targets between the posts – three substitutes. Joselu was in the middle, Mikel Oyarzabal at the far post and Mikel Merino – playing Ruiz’s role – was heading towards the near post. They were somehow overloading Germany four against three in the danger zone, and Olmo’s cross dipped perfectly for Merino to head home.

De la Fuente must make selection decisions ahead of the semi-final against France with right-back Dani Carvajal and centre-back Robin Le Normand suspended.

The coach has tried to keep a stable starting XI, with the exception of his rotation against Albania when Spain qualified. Pedri’s injury could force him to make another change. But neither of Spain’s two goalscorers, Olmo or Merino, started this quarter-final. Spain have depth, tactical options and goals from midfield. After beating the hosts, they are surely the team to beat.

(Top photo: Olmo and Rodri celebrate their last-minute win over Germany. Clive Mason/Getty Images)