I caught most of the second half, and one thing I noticed (and I don't know if this is a general problem with a team like Spain) but when they tried to up the tempo of their play they looked worse I thought. This is one thing IMO you have to give credit to British football for, is that the passing and tempo is usually played at a higher pace and more accurately. Spain couldn't do it effectively and I'll always remember the Liverpool Juventus game in 2005 when Garcia scored that magic goal, the Italians could simply not handle the pace & passing accuracy (the two combined are a lethal combo) as we blew them away inside 25 mins of football. We (LFC) also did this last season under Rodgers and the Latin teams like Italy & Spain can't reproduce this like the British, Dutch and Germans IMO.
It doesn't mean you always win playing this way, of course as we saw with Italy and England but Spain tried to 'up it' against Chile and looked well out of their comfort zone doing it - and that dirty, pikey looking Costa looked more akin to a donkey than anything else.
Italy, when they played England slowed the game down with possession football and to be fair they didn't cause England too much trouble but the contrast in two styles was interesting to watch. If England came out the blocks like Liverpool do, play a high intense passing & attacking game they could have gotten more from the game. But such was the humidity and conditions that night that the climate suited Italy's game more and sustaining a high octane game like that would have been virtually impossible.
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