2023-12-05 22:23:11
The unforgettable 2023 could not end any other way for the world champion. Spain, which with the ticket for the final four of the Nations League in its pocket had nothing at stake against Sweden, pulled on its game and pride to come back in a dream second half. He closes an unforgettable year in style and thus forgets the setback against Italy before facing the final assault on the Paris Games, which is within reach of a victory in the semifinals in February, when he will return to the competition.
La Roja, which without a tangible competitive objective intended to get rid of the bad taste of the defeat in Pontevedra, was surprised in less than a minute. Once again in an aerial ball, a facet of the game in which he failed against the transalpines, he received the goal from Sweden after a corner kick that Zigotti finished into the net.
Down on the scoreboard from the very beginning, the challenge of the world champion in La Rosaleda was redoubled. In both the World Cup semi-final and the Nations League duel in Gothenburg, Spain had conceded the minimum to a physically superior team, so it tried to redirect the duel towards its virtues, with good ball handling and the pressure on the rival like flags. This is how Olga Carmona’s shot hit the post, a starter before Salma Paralluelo’s goal, who made a good header into the center of the Sevillian left foot.
Spain
Misa, Batlle, Ivana Andrés (Codina, min. 46), Aleixandri (María Méndez, min. 75), Olga Carmona, Abelleira, Jenni Hermoso (Aitana Bonmatí, min. 60), Maite Oroz (Fiamma, min. 60), Athenea (Eva Navarro, min. 69), Salma Paralluelo and Mariona.
5
–
3
Sweden
Falk, Lundkvist (Rybrink, min. 82), Sembrant (Janogy, min. 82), Ilestedt, Eriksson, Angeldal (Bennison, min. 62), Asllani (Kafaji, min. 90), Zigotti, Kaneryd, Blackstenius y Nildén ( Andersson, min. 62).
Goals: 0-1: min. 1, Zigotti. 1-1: min. 11, Salma Paralluelo. 1-2: min. 14, Asllani. 1-3: min. 29, Blackstenius. 2-3: min. 51, Athena. 3-3: min. 78, Mariona. 4-3: min. 81, Fiamma. 5-3: min. 89, Mariona.
Referee: Kateryna Monzul (Ukraine). She booked Asllani and Eriksson.
Incidents: Match of the sixth day in group A4 of the Nations League played in La Rosaleda before 15,896 spectators.
The team seemed to have returned the duel to its own territory when Blackstenius dismantled the red defense with a measured pass for the unmarking Kosovare Asllani, who made a perfect pass to overcome the departure of his former Real Madrid teammate Misa Rodríguez. Despite the new setback, La Roja insisted on its bet and almost equalized in a shot by Mariona to which Falk reacted to correct his previous error in the ball’s release.
Jenni Hermoso also had a chance with a deflected header, with clear Spanish dominance, concentrated in the right lane due to the good work of Ona Batlle and Athenea del Castillo, two problems for the Scandinavian team. Spain’s goal was closer but Montse Tomé’s team once again replicated the worrying fragility of the duel against Italy in the goal by Blackstenius, who this time acted as a finisher after a good action by Kaneryd on the right side.
The perfect epilogue
Spain suffered another blow and it could even have been worse, with a good save by Misa against Angedal’s poisoned shot. Obfuscated, the guardian of the world throne insisted with more heart than head and was unable to reduce the deficit before the break. The pause did not eliminate the great difficulties of La Roja to overcome the suffocating Swedish pressure, but again the depth of Olga Carmona, a blessed solution, allowed a center that found Athenea in the heart of the Nordic area, where she did not forgive.
The Cantabrian soccer player’s goal was an injection of morale for a team that regained the confidence necessary to take control of the duel. With a sustained presence in rival territory and multiple chances to equalize, Spain combined this siege with the defensive security that it had lacked until then. The version of Montse Tomé’s team was reminiscent of the World Cup version during this stretch of the match. The only thing missing was the goal. Spain went all out in the final stretch, with very offensive changes and an open bet in pursuit of a tie that paid off with Mariona’s volley to make it 3-3.
The tie was a kind of liberation for a team that had surpassed its rival in the second half. From there, Spain unleashed itself and not only turned the game around with a goal from debutant Fiamma Benítez, but also rounded things off with Mariona’s double, a real nightmare for the Swedish defense. The party unleashed in La Rosaleda by the gale of local play became the perfect epilogue to an unforgettable year in the history of women’s football in Spain.
#Spain #Sweden #dream