Spain have not succeeded in recent national tournaments. The most recent failures were being eliminated in the last 16 in the 2018 FIFA World Cup and not qualifying for the final four of the last UEFA Nations League. However, Spain are bringing in a new generation of young exciting players, such as Ansu Fati from Barcelona, Ferrán Torres from Manchester City and other La Liga players. These new players will hope to do well in this year’s UEFA Nations League.
On the other hand, Switzerland have done well considering they are still not an elite European football nation. They went out in the last 16 of the World Cup too, but for them it may be more acceptable, given they havent made it to the quarter-final of the World Cup since 1954. However, they reached the final four of the UEFA Nations League last year. This was a great success as they managed to beat Belgium, who currently sit at the top of FIFAs world rankings, to get there. Right now, they sit in the last place of their group so they have to be careful not to go down to Group B.
The game ended in a 1-0 win for Spain but it was a hotly contested match. Switzerland have been one of the only teams to pressure Spain high and for some moments of the game, they were doing well. They had their chances but Spain dominated possession and due to a mistake in their build-up, they conceded the goal.
In this tactical analysis, we will observe how Switzerland wanted to harm Spain and how Spain maximised their usual tactics. In this analysis, we will see both Switzerland and Spain’s high pressing, the disadvantages of the 5-3-2 formation, and their play on the wings.
Lineups
Spain played the whole game in a 4-2-3-1. The back four for Spain was a mix of young and old players. The young players were Jose Luis Gayá and Pau Torres while the veteran players were Sergio Ramos and Jesús Navas. In front of them were the two defensive midfielders Sergio Busquets and Mikel Merino, with Dani Olmo being attacking midfielder. On the wings were the exciting talents Fati and Torres, connecting with another young star Mikel Oyarzabal.
Meanwhile, Switzerland started with a 5-3-2 which offered its strengths and weaknesses as we will see later on. Ricardo Rodriguez played as a centre-back even though his natural position is left-back. Making up the rest of the defence was Loris Benito, Fabian Schär, Nico Elvedi, and Silvan Widmer. The three midfielders were Djibril Sow, Granit Xhaka, and Remo Freuler. Then, up front were Haris Seferović and Admir Mehmedi.
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