European Football Championship 2024: Heavenly songs: The Spaniards sweep Croatia off the pitch

Is football poetry? Definitely yes, if you can talk about the matter in Spanish: »¿Qué pasará? ¿Qué misterio habrá? “Puede ser mi gran noche” echoed into the sky above the Berlin Olympic Stadium on Saturday evening. “Mi gran noche” (My big night) played over the loudspeaker system, a chanson interpreted by a certain Raphael in 1968. “Mi gran noche” was already the Spaniards’ goal anthem at the 2022 World Cup. The song is played at the European Championships after “Furia Roja” wins. “Qué pasará?” What does that mean?

Completely detached: On Saturday evening, thousands of Spaniards joined in fervently when the song was played. 3-0 against third place Croatia with ex-world footballer Luka Modrić, a truly great night! Captain Alvaro Morata and his colleagues had completed the first difficult piece of work in Death Group B and were now standing in front of the fan curve on the west side of the stadium, laughing. The light of the low evening sun fell golden through the marathon gate, players and supporters had the feeling that the song could probably be heard one or two more times at this European Championship.

All in all, Spain’s first tournament appearance: On the one hand, 16-year-old Lamine Yamal was allowed onto the field from the start, making him the record of the youngest European Championship player of all time. Yamal, whom the exuberant national coach Luis de la Fuente recently called “a gift from God”, dethroned Poland’s young kicker Kacper Kozłowski, who was the youngest player to appear at a European Championship in 2021 at the age of 17 years and 246 days.

On the other hand, in addition to the clever Yamal, the veterans in the Spanish team also knew how to convince: Rodri (27) from Manchester City, for example, cleaned up in front of the defense and distributed the balls, which full-backs David Carvajal (Real Madrid) and Marc Cucurella (Chelsea) did nimbly destroyed a large part of the Croatian attack efforts.

And at the front, alongside the teenager Yamal and the 21-year-old Pedri, Fabián Ruiz (28) was also happily twirling along. His perfectly measured through ball into the middle hit the shaky Croatian defense right in the heart: Alvaro Morata tapped the ball once with his right and then shot low with his left. The 1-0 in the 29th minute came in the middle of a Sturm und Drang phase for the red and white checkers, who clearly had the upper hand in the stadium. At least three quarters of the arena, which was full of 68,884 people, were in favor of the Balkan footballers, they set off smoke bombs and acoustically there was no doubt: “Hrvatska! Hrvatska!”

But it was no use: two minutes later, PSG attacker Fabián made former world footballer Luka Modrić look much older than 38 on the edge of the opponent’s penalty area: Fabián hit two hooks, Modrić was outplayed and the path was clear for the goal to make it 2-0 ( 31.). Croatia shocked, but things got worse before the half-time whistle. That’s when the teenager with the braces initiated the preliminary decision of the game: Lamine Yamal crossed from the right into the penalty area, full-back Daniel Carvajal slid in and poked the ball straight into the goal. Croatia’s goalie Dominik Livaković had no chance. The Croatian chants fell silent.

In the second half, Croatia tried everything, but it was far too little. The hard-working Hoffenheim player Andrej Kramarić caused a lot of unrest, Luka Modrić fought for every ball, coach Zlatko Dalić substituted whatever the bench gave, but nothing more than a wild penalty resulted: the referee called for a penalty in the 78th minute decided, the fouled Bruno Petković stepped to the penalty spot and took the shot. Spain keeper Unai Simon saved the penalty, but his rebound bounced to the onrushing Ivan Perisić, who played the ball back to Petković: goal! The Croatians cheered and briefly hoped for a miracle before the referee made the square gesture: VAR! The video referee disallowed the goal: Perisic had run into the penalty area too early. Free kick instead of kick-off for Spain.

After Croatia’s final whistle, coach Zlatko Dalić didn’t give his national players any good credit. “We were too slow, we were too far away and there was a lack of aggression,” said the 57-year-old. “If you give such good players so much freedom, it can’t go well.” Given the many Croatian spectators, he was particularly sorry: “It was a great atmosphere. I apologize for this bad game.”

Spain coach Luis de la Fuente, on the other hand, was deeply moved by his selection after the final whistle: “You could praise any of my players for today’s game. They are self-confident, they believe in what we can achieve and the superstars put themselves at the service of the team,” enthused the 62-year-old, who has been coaching the national team since December 2022 after leading the Real Federación’s youth teams for ten years Española de Fútbol (RFEF). “My team shows society how people can and should pull together,” he sang his own hymn of praise. Opera-ready.

In the second game of the group of death, the Spaniards now have to face defending champions Italy in Gelsenkirchen on Thursday, who only managed a cheerless 2-1 against Albania in Düsseldorf late on Saturday evening. The Spaniards don’t have to worry at all, with their win against Croatia they have put themselves directly in the front row of title candidates, where they belong as record European champions anyway.

The “Furia Roja” encourages you to dream and sing: “¿Qué pasará? ¿Qué misterio habrá? Puede ser mi gran noche«. Translated, this means: »What will happen, what secret will there be? It can be my big night!”