On a stage that invites admiration, both in its artificial and natural geography, contemplating the medieval clock of the Old City or the endless course of the Vltava River; on an also attractive grass, the Sinobo Stadium (or Eden Arena), inaugurated in 2008 and which has already hosted continental finals and received great teams (in its galleries there are great photos of when Slavia crossed with Messi’s Barcelona, in 2019), Spain is playing a good part of its aspirations in a tournament that it claims to love and respect. A Nations League that is just beginning, but that is already threatening. The Czech Republic commands and Spain slipped in the premiere against Portugal. A defeat would widen the disadvantage to four points.
And although the team does not contemplate it, it does fear or respect the rival, who in turn comes up, at least in the approach. He did it through the mouth of his coach, Jaroslav Silhavy (“we want to squeeze Spain, take the ball away from them, I have told my players not to be afraid; they are a machine, but we want to play too”) and the only one of their footballers who plays in the Spanish League, Jakub Jankto (“If we don’t believe we can win, we better not play. At home we can beat anyone, the last time we lost was against Brazil, more than three years ago”).
Luis Enrique, the head of the Spanish team, is also sure that he will find a “brave team” in front of him, nothing to do with bolts that other rivals have proposed. “Czech Republic defends well, takes up space well in attack and plays at home.” And in addition, he puts his beard to soak after what has happened to other neighboring powers on the first day of the tournament: «They are going to fall bigger. This tournament has put an end to the friendly teams. There is no easy game now.”
The local team has casualties, yes, of consideration. Especially his flagship player in the last European Championship, the scorer Schick. His striker will presumably be Kuchta, one of the few players who decided to stay and play in the Russian league, at Lokomotiv Moscow, despite the invasion of Ukraine.
Luis Enrique took advantage of the day to praise, among others, Unai Simón (“he transmits peace to me”) and Marcos Asensio (“his shot does not have six players in the world”.
