An injury to the anterior cruciate ligament of the left knee puts Jorge Vilda’s team without their big star three days before their debut.
A day before the start of the Women’s Euro Cup, Spain’s plans were blown up with the serious injury of franchise player, current Golden Ball, Alexia Putellas. Early in the afternoon, all alarms went off in Jorge Vilda’s team with a hypothetical left knee sprain that left the midfielder’s participation in the tournament in the air. Almost overnight, the worst omens were confirmed, with the announcement that the best player in the world had orphaned her teammates three days before her debut against Finland due to a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee. Things have not looked good since the footballer left the concentration hotel on crutches and her absence now forces us to recalculate the high expectations that had been raised for the tournament.
And it is that the national team faces the fourth European Championship in its history, the third in a row, with more ambitious ambitions than ever before, but outraged at the loss of its star. It is a major setback, the worst that Spain could suffer, although the evolution of Spanish women’s football and the presence of a list of players based on the enormous potential of today’s Barça allow us to still dream of high goals. Relying more than ever on the power of the whole, the roster will have to deal with less experience in relation to other forces of the Old Continent and the group of ‘death’.
England, the cradle of the 11-on-eleven sport, is waiting for an adventure that ended in the dreaded quarter-finals in Sweden’13 and the Netherlands’17. Norway and Austria crossed paths with the students of Ignacio Quereda, first, and Vilda, later. The goal now is to overcome that barrier and to do that, the first thing to do is avoid unpleasant surprises in an early stage with the most successful team in European Championship history, the fearsome Germany; the current continental runner-up, Denmark; and Finland, an alleged Cinderella who is not so Cinderella.
For the first time in its history, the Spanish team starts among the favorites list in most predictions. Now their whole numbers are down, but there is still the basics of Barca, champions of the Champions League in 2021 and runner-up last season. Sandra Paños will act as guard under the sticks, Irene Paredes and Mapi León as standard-bearers and the core will be in good hands with Patri Guijarro and Aitana Bonmatí, with the casting open to take third in the engine room and the key to the spanish game.
It is still a team that shines with its own light, calling on the madridista Esther González to make up for another sensitive loss, that of Jennifer Hermoso on the point of attack. His 14 goals this season in the Iberdrola League are not far from the 16 scored by the former Barca striker, who has just signed for Mexico’s Pachuca, and they seem to offer enough guarantee in terms of scoring, one of the aspects will be characteristic of the future of the Spanish team at the European Championship. Lucía García and Mariona Caldentey, who have been terrified in recent days with some minor ailments, will start with plenty of options to round out the Spanish attack, while the runways will have a clear Premier accent with the one desired by half of Europe. Ona Batlle, right-back of Manchester United and Leila Ouahabi, a left-back who recently left Barca for Manchester City.
The sensations were clouded with the shock in the form of injuries in the pre-tournament preparation. First Jenni Hermoso, then the last minute absence of the promising Salma Paralluelo, and to round out the catastrophe of Alexia’s serious injury. Spain are coming to the big event after playing two friendlies: a resounding 7-0 against Australia, reduced by absences, and a draw against Italy in transalpine countries. Despite the cross with physical problems shooting more and better than in other competitions.
Last Sunday the Spanish expedition landed in London and traveled to the Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre. Vilda’s team will be headquartered there in this European Championship, in which it makes its debut at MK Stadium in Milton Keynes against Finland on Friday at 6pm, before playing Germany at Brentford Community Stadium in London on Tuesday. 9 p.m., and to Denmark, on Saturday 4 p.m. at 9 p.m. At the back, England, Norway and Austria appear as potential rivals in a hypothetical quarter-final matchup, the teams with the most options in Group A and curiously, alongside the powerful host, Spain’s last two executioners in the European Championship. Outstanding bills, but that’s another story.
The ball will start rolling from today, at the legendary Old Trafford in Manchester. England and Austria kick off the European Championship of illusion and they do so with arbitration from Marta Huerta de Aza, the first Spanish referee in a match of the big selection tournament of the Old Continent.
Source: La Verdad
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