Euro 2020: How Slovakia’s failure to stop attacks out wide allowed Spain to wreak havoc – tactical analysis

On Tuesday, the day before Spain were set to face Slovakia in the ultimate game of Group E, Luis Enrique had some interesting words to say about his side who have massively struggled to score despite some decent performances.

Im 100 percent convinced, and I have the sensation that we are like a bottle of champagne about to be uncorked,” the Spanish manager said about his thoughts on his side’s prospects of reaching the knockout stages of the European Championship.

The former Barcelona and AS Roma head coach was absolutely correct in his estimation of how La Roja would play against Slovakia as they eased to a 5-0 victory at the Estadio de la Cartuja and grabbed second place in the group behind a valiant Sweden.

Slovakia has now bowed out with the hefty defeat, and almost everything went wrong for them, which will be analysed in this piece.

This article will be a tactical analysis of the game between Spain and Slovakia from Wednesday afternoon. It will be an analysis of the tactics of both sides as well as a look at where the game was won and lost.

Lineups and formations

Štefan Tarkovič made a couple of changes to the Slovakia team that lost against Sweden last week in their second group game. The Slovakian maintained the 4-2-3-1 formation that has been used in every game so far but tweaked the personnel slightly.

Newcastle United goalkeeper Martin Dúbravka remained in goal and was protected by a back four of Tomáš Hubočan, Milan Skriniar, Ľubomír Šatka, and Peter Pekarík. The double-pivot ahead of the backline comprised of Juraj Kucka and Jakub Hromada, although Napoli’s Stanislav Lobotka came on at half-time.

Marek Ha