There are moments that remain for the inanimate and Mikel Merino It is decided to drive Spain in conquering eurocup 2024. He returned to StuttgartJust a month after the stalk the German host was removed, it was still fresh in his memory “The Silence”. History of choice. A “magical moment” that appreciates the lapse of time.
Stuttgart It will be endless for Mikel Merino. A major city in his career, in which he was in Spain and four years later left an iconic seal. In the -119 minutes, destroying a stalk Spain. The first to conquer four eurocups. Remember this in an interview with Eph where he focused a new challenge, the France of Mbappé. That is Instead of and DouéNew European champions in Europe with PSG.
Of his return to Stuttgart In deep admiration for the ‘gold generation’ of Spain’s football. The Iker Casillas, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta And an idol company, so it considers a bravery comparable to the new phase, despite the fact that the occupation of a Link of the League of Nations, with the desire that the week will be two, and an eurocup.
Going to Lamine Yamal’s natural leadership at 17, without fleeing the focus and highlighting how it grows in pressure. The gold ball. His year of growing up in Arsenal. Mikel Merino speaks of everything without in a hurry, enjoying the conversation just as he does in football.
Question: Born in Pamplona, Stuttgart Adoptive City. He wore it with the fullest there, scored the purpose of his career …
Answer: (Laughter) Debut there and always very special back, especially for memories of a personal level, because of having help the team with that purpose on a magical night, to win and for everything that happened against Germany. And at the family level it was strange to play at the same stadium where my dad made and marked him like.
Q: Do you still remember that moment of silence created in what a pressure cooker is? Because Andrés Iniesta’s purpose in Johannesburg has not lived the same.
A: Of course I remember it, I heard it from the moment of the ball, until it entered the network. It was a second of three or four. That silence on the travel of the ball until it entered the goal, in a field full of Germans, with its choice of positive immortality and encouraged without stopping. And, suddenly, listen to the cry of our fans. It was a mysterious moment that I would remember forever.
Q: Eurocup Finals 2024. Extension. An iconic image jumps with your legs open to touch in the air. A goal for the lack of Spanish football. In the 119 minutes, to bury the host’s curse.
A: I remember that action forever. This is something that a history selection achieved, which wins the host, in a match faced with two best contest options, an early final, and achieving it at the last minute is something unique, which over time will appreciate it more. As the years pass, I will give you a greater amount.
Q: Spain returns to the same phase for one of the great choices, against France, which can be the end of the eurocup or world.
A: Exactly, this is another of the values that a competition like the Nations League has. Many people do not appreciate him enough but rivals play as France, and if you want a maximum rival level. It’s like an eurocup but more extended over time. This is a very difficult game. We know that in order to win any title you need to play against the best and that -we just do it well. We want to proceed with that line, competing with all the respect of France, but know that we have won them and we want to do it again.
Q: The desire of revenge in France, for what happened to the eurocup, but also from Spain for the final league of countries left for a MBAPPé purpose that eventually resulted in a change of standard …
A: Football will eventually cross the paths again and it is curious that the final countries are against France. Now we play against them and when you are in contests at this level, you measure you in the choices of a very high level in good matches, of great rival.
Q: The first thing in mind when France is appointed its physical power, is it imposed on current football?
A: It is imposed to find the player as complete as possible. There are always times when the physicist goes up, but at the technical level the options are great. Now the player who gives you everything, a physical, technical level, who understands the game and attractive -attractive matches of players called to score the future.
Q: At the level of the club it was found in the Arsenal Tie against Real Madrid, the way in which they buried any hope to return to Bernabéu …
A: Now is the road mark, being a team where eleven goes to death and physical are machines. No more see our tie against PSG, two games from you with you with the players who give everything. With Luis Enrique on the head they have shown what works now and what gives you the titles.
Q: Did this ‘champions’ leave a thorn?
A: Yes (Buntong -Sigh), someday it hurts to see the final after the feeling that you are about to see you there. I personally believe that the arsenal for the two games he made in the semifinal could be there. Ultimately they are details, the individual intelligence, in this case Donnarumma saves both hands in the hands and the first fifteen minutes of Paris can give us a tie, but it’s football now, which is even perfect as a team, decided by the details.
Q: How did you improve to switch to English football?
A: I am someone older, experiences, changing winds, leaving your comfort zone tired of you, raising you. Take a hard time, realize what you have and what you don’t, see what you need to improve. This year it was different, I learned a lot from a group of different nationalities, from other cultures in the country that make me older.
Q: Personally he has evolution in his demarcation to end as 9 with Mikel Arteta
A: I always see myself in the Danger Zone, I always come and I’m close to the rival place. I haven’t exploited it yet at the level of the numbers, to put goals, as much as possible but I’m comfortable near the place. I have physical power that when the end develops problems with central and dangerous, but it is true that I have never seen myself as a center striker. This year I had the opportunity to change and it was a more level than developing my game to come well.
Q: The speech about the nueves, the scary factor that Mbappé developed or lost over time?
A: You can say that, inside the pitch we have a respectable factor, we know he is a very good player. We respect him, but we have in mind that he is a player and we are playing from you to you like any rival. We know about their abilities but we are all human, we make a mistake and success.
Q: Is this the best center in the world?
A: It is difficult to appreciate it as a forward center because it has the same potential that it can play in many different demarcations. She felt comfortable attaching the band, it was not a tip to use because she left the position to be linked. Without a doubt, it is one of the best in the world.
Q: Combining an attack on names such as Dembélé and Doué that gives a lot of respect for their time.
A: Very nice names that make storms, players of massive quality, very fast, unbalanced. France is amazing -a wonderful choice, he has already shown it in the eurocup and for something they have reached the final stages that they have regularity.
Q: Who deserves the gold ball for Mikel Merino?
A: Hopefully Lamine Yamal or Pedri, players we have on the national team to make an incredible time. They didn’t get the champions but shown throughout the year that they were at the best of the best. Hopefully we win the Nations League and drive them, we also want to win it for another title to the country and through personal ambition.
Q: Lamine is accustomed to something that is not normal by a 17 -The boy, with an incorrect maturity and an immortality on the farm leaving his mouth open …
A: It has a amazing talent. It is very difficult to see it from the SO CHILD, and then ready to think to assume these kinds of challenges. You can’t force, the fear of focusing on a child’s and even veterans you usually have, the pressure everyone knows you. Not only was he comfortable but went up to that pressure, with rivals going for him. This is the most I -highlight from the lamine, so each one has a way and some win the gold ball as a very modric, others are very young. You don’t have to compare it to anyone because everyone is doing their own path, but no doubt it’s not normal.
Q: Spain aims to repeat the success without two of the great references, Rodri and Dani Carvajal
A: We all have to take a step forward because both Rodri and Carva are key pieces with many national team games. In the last eurocup they showed that they were leaders within the field with their main experience in such a young team, but we were all older, we gain experience and each one had to take one step to replace those two figures.
Q: It lost from eleven years of drought titles in the possibility of winning a successive third party …
A: These are processes, stages. The good thing about this generation is that he is hungry. He won things but he planned to continue winning them. The fear of seeing that it is impossible to win a title is gone. We know it’s very difficult because the level of selections is huge but the complex is not there, we are brave, we have achieved it and we know that we can do it again hard work and compete.
Q: After a League of Nations, which could be two, and an eurocup, with the 2026 World Cup of Spain on the favorite list, could this generation of gold of Casillas, Xavi, Iniesta, Ramos, Villa, Torres …
A: Comparison with that generation now makes no sense for all its meanings. Not just in the number of titles, but what it means to do it first and the way they do. I have a bit of a heart for them. I was a kid when I saw them growing up and the illusion of a child, with those emotions you lived with, stay there. There is nothing comparable to that generation.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
