PIQUE HITS THE HEIGHTS FOR SPAIN
THE defining moment looked simple but it wasn’t. The cross from Andres Iniesta had to be pretty much perfect and it was. Spotting Gerard Pique desperately peeling off his marker’s shoulder at the far post, Spain’s supreme artist dropped the ball on Pique’s forehead with his right foot and, finally, this game was won.
This is what the very best players do. They keep going, they don’t give up, but there is more to it than that. They keep control of their emotions, they don’t panic. They realise that if they are tired then the chances are the blokes chasing them will be more so.
Ultimately, they ensure their own tired minds make the right decisions and, as a result, win matches. This is how it was here in Toulouse. A one-goal massacre that was very close to being one of the most unjust draws in the history of this tournament.
Right at the death, in the three minutes that followed Pique’s goal, Spain’s goalkeeper David de Gea did his bit, too. His save from Vladimir Darida’s volley justified coach Vicente del Bosque’s decision to pick him ahead of Iker Casillas.
It was Iniesta who wrote his name all through this game, though. Without the enduring talents of the 32-year- old Barcelona playmaker, Spain simply would not have won.
‘I try to have a high responsibility,’ said Iniesta afterwards.
‘That’s how I have always done it and enjoyed it. I don’t shirk it. I am happy it’s like that.
‘It’s not the first time we have had this kind of game or opponent. They defend because they have respect for how we play.
‘We just have to be calm and patient and remember that running 90 minutes after the ball makes you very tired and that makes it very difficult for them to keep going. Because of this there will always be chances at the end.’
Champions in 2008 and 2012, Spain have evolved in terms of personnel but not in how they play. They remain endearingly similar to watch and, as such, occasionally run into similar problems. Here in Toulouse that problem was a blanket Czech defence and a goalkeeper called Petr Cech.
Spain have never really made any attempt to develop a Plan B. So when attempts to play their way through international defences encounter problems, everything can get a little frustrating.
Here we witnessed one such day. Despite the fuss over De Gea’s private life in the days before the game, the Manchester United goalkeeper’s selection looked all but incon- sequential, so under-employed was he until his save right at the end.
Almost from the start, Spain were ascendant and Iniesta emerged as the game’s best outfield player. In the Juventus striker Alvaro Morata, he had a rather erratic target to aim for but since the start of Fernando Torres’s decline a few years back, it has often been this way.
Spain created enough chances to score in the first half. Full backs Juanfran and Jordi Alba were admirably progressive and Manchester City’s David Silva marked his 100th cap by playing with a little more energy and ingenuity than he managed for his club this season.
Cech saved well early on from Morata and also from Alba, Morata again and Silva before half-time. The first stop, a block from close range, was perhaps the pick. In the second half, meanwhile, Spain were a little wasteful. Czech defender Roman Hubnik — excellent on the whole — was panicked into nudging a Morata cross on to his own post soon after the interval while Alba miscontrolled when running on to a super Silva pass.
Substitutes Aritz Aduriz and Thiago Alcantara similarly lacked composure close to goal, while Silva curled a left-foot shot wide from 18 yards when it seemed perfectly set up for him to score the winner.
In the midst of all this the Czech Republic briefly showed signs of improvement. De Gea saved low from Hubnik — a very good chance from a whipped in free-kick — then Cesc Fabregas was required to thunder a clearance from under his own crossbar and a creeping feeling spread that things might be about to go very wrong for Spain.
Perhaps Iniesta was right, though. Perhaps the Czech team did run out of energy. Or perhaps they thought they had seen Spain off, drawn their fire.
If they did, they were wrong. Pique couldn’t really miss when his moment arrived in the 87th minute and their opponents were left to ruefully acknowledge the presence of a higher talent.
‘You don’t always appreciate it on the pitch but as soon as Iniesta has the ball you know something will happen,’ said Tomas Rosicky.
‘He is a pleasure to watch for everyone I am sure.’