The Genius Way Spain Adapted To Beat Germany
In Euro2024's most anticipated game so far, it was Spain who advanced through to the semi-finals with a dramatic late winner against hosts Germany. But with both team's main route to goal snuffed out by their opponent's tactics, it was Luis de la Fuente's men who managed to adapt their play and find new ways to win. Adam Clery breaks down what their problems where, and how they overcame them.
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00:00Hola everybody, Adam Cleary from 442.
00:06Spain have just beaten Germany 2-1 in the quarterfinals of the Euros.
00:10I have just watched it in a pub in East London full of Germany fans and we're here today
00:15to tell you how they broke all their hearts, which I think is right.
00:22That sounds alright.
00:23Thank you.
00:27Now not to sound like a teenager who's been inadvertently caught by his parents having
00:30a house party, but this accidentally became a bit of a mad one.
00:35Now if you've watched both the videos looking at these teams on the channel thus far, then
00:38first off, if you have, good.
00:40If not, why not?
00:41Do you hate me?
00:42Or something.
00:43They have very specific ways how they break down other teams.
00:46For Spain, we looked at it in that video through the combination play of the two wide players,
00:50Yamal and Williams.
00:51They create space in behind, they get them on the ball and they run directly to the opposition.
00:55And for Germany, while a lot of it does come down to the movement between their front three
00:59and Kai Havertz, a lot of it is also about getting Tony Kroos on the ball in deeper areas
01:05where he won't be pressed and he won't be bothered.
01:07And what was incredibly disappointing, if you are normal, but really exciting if you're
01:12a bad tactics nerd like me, was that both teams were able to snuff out these two things
01:18in how they set up.
01:19And as a result, it made the game very bitty, very chaotic, and they both had to adapt through
01:24their changes in system and later in the game substitutions to find ways through.
01:30But first off, I'm going to tell you how they ruined each other's lives.
01:33So fundamentally here, what you've got is a Spain side that don't want to give Kroos
01:36time on the ball and a Germany side that do not want to give Spain opportunities in those
01:41wide areas.
01:42Now, first off, I'll show you the average positions of Spain.
01:45If you've been following them through the tournament, you'll know what Williams and
01:48Yamal like to do is stretch the opposition.
01:50They like to spend most of the game really wide.
01:52And when we show you these graphs, they tend to be really close to the touchline.
01:56But here you can see they're far closer to the center, and that's because Germany stopped
02:01them getting on the ball in the areas they like.
02:03And just to really ram this point down your throat, these are their combined heat maps
02:07across that 90 minutes.
02:09Now, in all the other games, they've been really deep.
02:11They've been really red.
02:12They've been so involved in the game, but here you can just see they're bit part players.
02:18They're in and out.
02:19They're not really getting on the ball in any areas they want to.
02:21And when they come into other areas, they're still not able to do anything.
02:25But then you flip that around.
02:26What Spain were trying to do was stop Kroos getting on the ball in these sort of like
02:30uncontested deeper areas.
02:32He likes to drop next to the two center backs and get it in sort of a left center back kind
02:36of area.
02:37They were pressing him, stopping him doing that.
02:39And I'll show you his heat map from the game.
02:41And you probably think, oh, you were wrong about that, Adam.
02:43The biggest patch here is in that left center back area, because that is where he was trying
02:48to drop to.
02:49That's where he was trying to receive the ball.
02:50So instead of the heat map, which just reflects touches and involvement, I'll show you his
02:54pass map instead.
02:56Now that is still a player who's involved in doing stuff and he got further up the field
02:59and he got in the center of the park, but that's not what Kroos' heat maps have looked
03:03like throughout the tournament so far.
03:05Like I'll show you his Denmark one, which apologies is flipped upside down because that's
03:09just the opposite I have to work with.
03:12You can see there's a huge concentration of them in this part of the pitch because when
03:16he gets there, he's uncontested.
03:18He can put the ball wide.
03:19He can put it into the channels.
03:20He can basically dictate play, but we swap that back for the Spain game.
03:25Those passes don't exist.
03:26Yes, he gets on the ball, but when he does, he's not having anywhere near the sort of
03:30impact on the game that he normally would from that position.
03:33And that's terrible news for both these teams.
03:35Spain have really relied on their two wide men.
03:38Germany have relied on Kroos.
03:39They effectively snuffed each other out in that first half.
03:43And in that first half, I think it's fair to say that Spain probably adapted the quickest
03:47and they adapted the best.
03:48They couldn't get Yamal and Williams on the ball in the wide area.
03:52So instead they focus their play a little bit more through the center.
03:55But the problem with that is they're not really equipped or briefed or trained or sort of
04:00practiced in creating chances through the middle.
04:03And you may have noticed they had so many of their shots from just the edge of the box.
04:08In fact, actually, this is every single attempt on goal they had in that first half.
04:13And you can see there's not a single one gets within inside the 18 yard box.
04:17They were finding a brick wall.
04:18They couldn't go out wide.
04:20So instead they just took the chances they had available, which Germany would have probably
04:24been quite happy with, even if you don't want to give them too many of those.
04:28This is probably the best example of Spain just being slightly out of their comfort zone
04:32here.
04:33They get a break on, which is what they're trying to do.
04:35They get men over, which is what they're trying to do.
04:37But they get to the edge of the box and they can't go out wide to create the chance.
04:41So they rush it in the central area, even though if we just pause it here, if there's
04:46a better decision made, you can see there's an overload on this left side, rolling the
04:50ball out here would draw this defender out, which would give this player total, total
04:55space.
04:56But they just don't make that decision because that's not usually how Spain attack.
05:00And as well as that, another major thing that Germany were doing to disrupt Spain's play
05:04was they were shutting off all the early passes into Rodri.
05:07Like we've done this again in another video, Rodri's main strength is very different to
05:11the rest of this Spanish side.
05:13He gets on the ball and he finds these line breaking passes.
05:16So to stop him doing that, the most effective way is to stop him receiving the ball full
05:20stop.
05:21Like this is in about like the 10th or 11th or something minute.
05:24You can see here that Spain are building out.
05:26Germany is sitting off.
05:27They're not pressing them too high.
05:28Their natural instinct would be, okay, let's find Rodri and then he'll play it through
05:33this German defensive block.
05:34But he is man marked out of this situation entirely.
05:37Gondwana is here who is shadowing him completely to the point where when he has to move off
05:42because he's moved out of his space, he immediately calls for his teammates to cover over.
05:47You can see they really are prioritizing Rodri not getting that ball.
05:51And in fact, it's not long after that, that there was just an example of exactly how both
05:55teams were being forced to play without their sort of main attacking plan working.
06:01Like in the space of 60 seconds, Germany have the ball at the back.
06:04You can see Spain have set up in their sort of high press with two and two here shutting
06:09off the mid zone and Germany have to go out wide.
06:12Which is what Spain want them to do.
06:13For Germany, credit where it's due to them are incredibly technically good.
06:18It's not just as simple as to have the right players in the right places because they can
06:22play through that if they get it right.
06:24And in this example, they go out wide, they play the first pass.
06:27And even though this player has his back to goal, he has somebody up his arse, he still
06:31manages to wriggle through that, they get a chance down the left hand side, they get
06:36him into space and they nearly get an effort on goal from that.
06:39But they don't get an effort from that because Spain are able to force a turnover and because
06:42Germany by this point have committed so many players up front, they're then able to break
06:47a pace, run directly at them and get the kind of more chaotic chance they were hoping to
06:52get through the game.
06:53And legitimately watching this at the time, I don't think I've ever seen a better example
06:57of two teams having the exact situation they were trying to manufacture happen right on
07:03top of each other.
07:04But it's a perfect example of the way this game was going and why they both found it
07:07really hard to create good chances early on.
07:11But what was inevitably going to happen, inevitably eventually happened, right?
07:16The one threat that Spain had, as we already mentioned, was that even though they couldn't
07:20get around the side, they were creating chances on the edge of the German box.
07:24And while those are not good chances, not the chances they want to create, they aren't
07:28chances you can continue to allow against sides like Spain.
07:33Because sooner or later, there's enough talent in that side, someone will ping that in from
07:3830 yards.
07:39You've seen it a hundred times at this tournament.
07:41It might not actually be a hundred, I haven't counted, but you've seen it plenty.
07:44So Germany's substitution, which at the time felt like the right one at halftime, was to
07:48hook Emre Can who kept getting caught the wrong side of the ball and bring Andrik on
07:52who's a little bit more, if not defensively minded, but certainly a bit more all action.
07:57He'd cover those shots, he'd get blocks in.
07:59And that, ironically, is where Spain's opening goal comes from.
08:04Andrik is clearly coming on with the instruction to make sure he is goal side of those chances
08:09happening. So when Spain manufacture the situation, he drops a little bit.
08:14But the problem is he drops fractionally too far.
08:17And if you just pause it here, you can see he's practically in a line with the rest of the
08:21German defence. He's effectively made it a back three.
08:24And instead of blocking off the chance at the edge of the box, he's in fact opened up more
08:28space there than they probably would have had.
08:30It still requires an excellent pass and an excellent finish.
08:33But Danny Ulmer was free to make that run and pretty much comes untracked from this
08:38area into the place he scores.
08:40Like in theory, Germany made the correct change there.
08:43It's just the player they brought on did not do what he was supposed to do as well as he
08:48should have done it. And if that sounds like a bit of a cop out from a tactics channel,
08:51just saying like, oh, he just didn't think he didn't do the thing as well as he was supposed
08:55to, that's kind of what these games come down to.
08:58And spoiler alert, it's pretty much the theme of the winning goal.
09:02Now, there's a reason that anybody talks to you about football, describes game states
09:06and momentum and things like mentality, because they do have an impact on these games
09:10way more than sort of team shape and instructions.
09:14It was very clear that given Spain weren't creating good chances, they were a little
09:18bit worried about their ability to hold off the inevitable German onslaught.
09:23Now, I said this, and if you don't believe me and check with my dad, because I literally
09:26texted him about it, all Spain needed to do was hold their nerve.
09:30Germany would have to open up way more.
09:32Those spaces for Yamal and Williams would open up and they'd be able to go and get that
09:37second goal. But hey, I'm not a football manager.
09:39I'm not going to tell Spain how to play a game.
09:41They decided not to do that.
09:42And over the second half, they subbed off both of those players in favour of congesting
09:48the middle of the pitch.
09:49And it became apparent around, I think this is like the 66th, 67th minute, that this is
09:55where Germany were going to be able to get some joy after the changes.
09:58They make this chance on the edge of the box.
10:01And if you just pause it right here, you tell me where the space is, right?
10:05It's just loads, loads off to the right hand side here.
10:09If there's a player overlapping, if there's a player providing that width, they can put
10:13it out to them and they will get a cross in uncontested.
10:16But they haven't got anybody there.
10:18They don't do it.
10:19And the game just sort of rolls on like that.
10:22Germany cannot get through the middle.
10:24They're not using the flanks well enough, even though Spain have effectively surrendered
10:29them in the hope of defending that central area.
10:31And they don't quite learn their lesson until, wouldn't you just know it, the 89th minute
10:38of the game.
10:39They finally wake up to this and make that a thing.
10:43And this is the goal, right?
10:44Spain, they've got every single player in this narrow area defending their own goal.
10:50And the problem with this is while it does stop teams playing through you, if you have
10:54somebody like Marco Guerrero, who had a great game, is good at getting up, is good at getting
10:58on the ball, but who's not going to be an aerial threat, you're effectively asking him
11:04to defend any long crosses towards the back post.
11:07And that is not even slightly his game.
11:10No matter how big his hair is, he's not going to win that ball.
11:12And all you've got to do in this situation, if you're Germany, is just commit the right
11:17amount of men forward to make sure wherever that cross goes, you've got a chance of winning
11:21it.
11:22And of all the players to do it, it's Tony Kroos.
11:25He can't get on the ball deep, he can't really now impact the game centrally because of how
11:28congested it is.
11:30So instead, he makes that run to the back post and that's where the ball ends up.
11:35Now, I wouldn't say predictably, but also certainly not unexpectedly.
11:45He wins that header, he knocks it back into play.
11:48And then it's a fantastic, tiny little finish that gets Germany back into the game.
11:53But crucially, it comes from this area out here that Spain were letting them have.
11:59Their substitutions were bad, which is obviously quite an ironic thing to say, because I do
12:03genuinely think the Andrik substitution was probably quite a clever one.
12:06It's just that that didn't work.
12:08But that's football, isn't it?
12:11Here's the thing about extra time in games of tournament football, especially in an era
12:14where you can make so many substitutes.
12:16I would love to stand here and tell you the really, really clever way in which Spain's
12:22extra time substitutions, like bringing on Mikel Mourinho, turned the tides in their
12:27favour.
12:28But if you watched that game, you thought, I'm willing to bet, that was 100% going to
12:33penalties.
12:34It was dead open at both ends.
12:35Both teams were creating chances, but not through anything particularly structural,
12:39just through personnel.
12:41And there's genuinely nothing particularly clever about how Spain get that winning goal.
12:46They're just willing to commit players into the box, which is admirable.
12:50And Germany's best defender so far this tournament, Antonio Rudiger, just loses the flight of
12:57the ball.
12:58That's it.
12:59Oh, is that it there?
13:00It's on TV.
13:01It's on TV.
13:03Exactly as I've said it.
13:04Let's have a look back.
13:05Oh, there he is, losing the flight of the ball.
13:09Spain get slightly more players into the box than you would probably expect in the 119th
13:14minute.
13:15It's a little bit of a roll of the dice.
13:16And the cross that comes in isn't cleverly sort of manufactured by getting an overload
13:20somewhere.
13:21It's just somebody in the sort of final third who Germany do not have the legs to go and
13:26close down.
13:27And Rudiger could be two yards further back.
13:30He's just not.
13:33There's nothing more complicated than that.
13:34And then it's a really, really good header.
13:37And I wish, honestly, truly, I wish genuinely I had something more insightful to say to
13:42you about such an important winning goal, like a goal that takes Spain to the semifinals
13:46and knocks out the hosts who were people's favorites going into that.
13:50But it's just a case of they just gave it a go and it worked.
13:54And that's kind of the whole story.
13:57Like Spain have a way of going getting goals and Germany didn't let them do it.
14:01Germany have a way of going and getting goals and Spain didn't let them do it.
14:05So it became basically a battle of which players could adapt the best during the game on the
14:10field and which managers could make the best substitutions.
14:13But if there's one sort of small, tiny thing I could point out that we have mentioned in
14:17other videos, Spain being unafraid to change so many of their star players, rest their
14:22legs and leave them all out for the Albania game has left them that little bit fresher
14:28going into this stage of the tournament.
14:30Really the lack of reluctance to bring a Mourinho on, to take a Williams or Yamal off, left
14:36Spain in a position going into those last few minutes where they didn't worry about
14:39committing extra players into the box because the energy would have been there to run back
14:44and close down any counterattack.
14:45Now maybe that's pure speculation on my part.
14:48We'll literally never know what would have happened if that cross hadn't come in.
14:51But just that does feel like a team that's got a little bit more running in it, a little
14:57few more options off the bench.
14:59And we said that could prove pivotal in the last stages of the tournament.
15:03And I just don't look at Germany and think they had that tonight anyway.
15:08So, yes, there you go.
15:09Viva Espana.
15:11Almost a million percent now the favourites to win this tournament because they probably
15:15were going into this game.
15:17And now the second best team anybody's seen are now out.
15:20I know you said going home there, but of course they are home.
15:23That's the beauty of hosting.
15:25And there are, of course, precious few games left in the Euros.
15:28I'm just savour them, my friends, because it won't be around much longer.
15:31But all those games are dead exciting and dead big and dead clever.
15:33So if you'd like to see our analysis of all of those, we've got every single remaining
15:37game going to be covered on the channel by myself and Adam Monk, who's over there somewhere.
15:40Say hello, Adam.
15:41Yeah, he's over there.
15:42Please subscribe to us here at 414.
15:44You won't miss a single one, whether you are Spanish or Swiss or English or Portuguese
15:50or French, although one of them will be out by the time this goes, or Turkish or who am
15:54I forgetting?
15:55Dutch.
15:56There we go.
15:57So that's the thing.
15:58I finally got a brand new copy of the magazine.
15:59Yes, it's not about the Euros because everything must go on and evolve.
16:03It's Pep's Disciples, we've called that, and it's a look at the new season, which will
16:07be here sooner than you think.
16:09You get me on all the social medias, Adam Clear, you see LALY, the 442 socials are in
16:14the corner of the video.
16:15I've done the subscribe thing.
16:16I've done the magazine thing.
16:17I've done the analysis thing.
16:18It's all on you now, my friends.
16:19And if you are Spanish, I feel like I should know how to say congratulations in Spanish,
16:26but I don't.
16:27So, adios, and they said au revoir there, bye.