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Spain coach Luis Enrique has shown great confidence in his captain Sergio Ramos, despite the fact that he has missed two penalties against Switzerland.
Spain settled for a 1-1 draw with Switzerland at Saint Jacob Park in the fifth round of the European Nations League group stage.
Luis Enrique said after the game: “This is football. It is a great sport, but many times it is not fair. It was a pleasant game for the spectators.”
He added: “I think we completely controlled the first half, but unfortunately we scored a goal and then we got tired.”
He continued: “The good thing is that we trust ourselves to qualify. This is not bad for the last round.”
Spain needs to win the last round when they host Germany, to advance to the semifinals of the continental competition.
Spain’s basic formation saw Luis Enrique without paying any explicit striker, before ending the match with both Álvaro Morata and Gerard Moreno, with the latter drawing in the 89th minute.
On that, the Spain coach said: “After the game ended and watching, it’s easy to say that I had to involve Morata and Gerard Moreno from the beginning, but I’m used to it now.”
The match witnessed a bizarre incident, with Sergio Ramos missing two penalty kicks after scoring 25 consecutive shots in his career.
Luis Enrique defended the veteran defender: “Sergio Ramos scored 25 penalties in a row, these things can happen in football.”
And he added: “If a third penalty had been taken, Ramos would have taken it too, and if he had counted a fourth, Ramos would have taken it as well.”
He continued: “We have a list of penalty shooters, and Ramos is at the top, and therefore he would have paid any kick counted in the game.”
“I have always said that I am happy with the three goalkeepers. Unai Simon is another option I have, I have 3 great goalkeepers with different styles,” he concluded, commenting that he pushed Unai Simon to goal and kept David de Gea and Kiba Arizabalaga in the bench.
Switzerland, meanwhile, missed their first win in 2020, and they have an attempt against Ukraine in a few days..
Although the formation of Spain witnessed a strange irony, since it only included two players who have more than 10 international matches, they are Sergio Ramos and Sergio Busquets..
Something that had not happened since January 1993 in a friendly against Mexico, and has not happened officially since 1968.
Spain completed 7 straight away games without a win.
The Spain formation also featured the participation of Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper Unai Simon, at the expense of David de Gea and Kepa Arizabalaga..
While Ramos surpassed his counterpart Gianluigi Buffon, the legendary goalkeeper of Italy, reaching 177 international matches, and approached Ahmed Hassan Dean’s equation of world players in 184 matches..
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