Thank you Spain!

Karan Ahgun

β€” 3 min read
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Thank you Spain!

Whilst football didn't come home once again, Spain did the world of football a favour by beating defending champions, Argentina, in the World Cup final. Argentina lost a lot of support for their off-the-ball antics in the latter stages of the tournament, and despite having the magic of Messi, the footballing world was rooting for the Spanish to win their second World Cup.

Spain were utterly dominant in the final, as they had been throughout the tournament. They only conceded one goal throughout and made a much-favoured France side look completely ordinary in their 2-0 semi-final victory. Aymeric Laporte and Pau Cubarsi were an imperious centre-back partnership, whilst Rodri showed his class again - which won him the Player of the Tournament award. One of the more surprising top performers for the World Champions was Pedro Porro. After a disappointing season with Tottenham Hotspur, not many would have predicted the right-back to have as good a tournament as he did. Porro made a few vital contributions along the way for Spain, including scoring against Austria and France and putting out some impressive defensive displays. And of course, many will look to Lamine Yamal's performances across the tournament and they will feel underwhelmed but this Spanish team is about the collective and not just about its star talent. They are different from the pure tiki-taka style of the 2010 side. They have the same principles but carry a more direct threat from the flanks. Their defensive robustness and ability to totally control games are the main factors for this World Cup victory.

Luis de la Fuente deserves massive credit for turning Spain's fortunes around. Since being in charge, he has won everything he can including the EUROs, Olympic Gold, the Nations League and now the World Cup. He has overseen the development of a lot of the younger members of the Spanish squad from his different roles within the Spanish FA, and he has built strong relationships with his players in that time. Their relationship is so strong that a number of Spanish players have said that they would get a tattoo of his face if they won the World Cup!

As for Argentina, they didn't turn up for the final. They only recorded 2 shots to Spain's 20 and didn't really test Unai Simon in goal. The former champions went into the game with the same thuggish tactics they employed against England in the semi-final but this time they overstepped the mark. Enzo Fernandez was rightly sent off for two bookable offences in the late stages of the 90 minutes, and his midfield partner, Leandro Paredes, was lucky not to be sent off too. Argentina's behaviour after the final whistle was blown was classless as Molina struck a celebrating Rodri across the midriff and Paredes was seen swinging for Gavi and Eric Garcia, earning him a much-deserved red card. These antics will take away some of the shine from Leo Messi's performances in what will probably be his last World Cup tournament.

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