EURO 2020: Simon’s heroics save Spain but Switzerland leave blueprint for La Roja’s demise – tactical analysis

Despite a rather underwhelming performance, Spain have secured a spot in the semi-finals of EURO 2020 after beating Switzerland on penalties. It was not exactly a dominant display but some heroics from LaLiga star Unai Simón and Barcelona’s Pedri and Sergio Busquets managed to save the day.

This tactical analysis will give you both teams’ tactics and tell you just how Spain salvaged a victory.

Lineups

As ever, we’ll start the analysis by dissecting the starting formations. Switzerland didn’t tinker too much with the squad that eliminated France but Denis Zakaria had an almost impossible task of replacing the team captain, Granit Xhaka. Even though his display was decent overall, he scored an own goal that put Switzerland in an early deficit.

Apart from that, Vladimir Petković decided not to fix a system that was clearly not broken and retained the 4-2-3-1 formation that sometimes resembled a 4-4-2, just like it did against France.

Luis Enrique, on the other hand, came into the game with two changes to the lineup that beat Croatia. Pau Torres returned and displaced Eric García, while Jordi Alba took the left-back spot from José Luis Gayà once more. Spain remained in their traditional 4-3-3 structure throughout the game.

Spain’s rotations

Even though they struggled immensely as the game went on, Spain were very comfortable in possession for the large part of the first half of the match. This was to be expected and Switzerland’s initial and very narrow 4-4-2 formation out of possession insinuated they were prepared to sit deep and wait for their chances through transitions.