- 2 days ago
Spain have sent tournament favourites France crashing out of the World Cup at the semi-final stage, but how did they stop the best attack at the tournament from mustering more than just three shots on target all game? Archie Corbett explains how Spain suffocated France when they tried to build up, and how their excellent recovery defence ensured that Spain qualified for their first World Cup final since 2010.
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00:00Right, hello everybody and welcome back to the Adam Cleary Football Channel.
00:04I'm Archie Corbett and would you like to know how to stop the best attack in world football?
00:11Well of course you would, but it's a bit of a weird thing to need to know unless you're a
00:15top level manager.
00:16But thankfully for Luis de la Fuente in Spain, he is both a top level manager and he knows how
00:22to stop the best attack in the world.
00:23Because not only did his Spain side stop what has looked like the most potent front four we've seen at
00:29this tournament and maybe the best attacking team we've ever seen at a World Cup up until this game, but
00:35he kind of did it in a hilariously simple way.
00:38But this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Spain have the best defence at this World Cup, statistically
00:44at least, only conceding once so far this tournament.
00:47So the question is, how did they make the seemingly impossible possible?
00:56Right, let's jump straight into it because the main principle of how Spain won this game was actually what they
01:02did out of possession, specifically the way they were able to press in this game.
01:07And now when I tell you about pressing, you might be thinking about charging down an opposition player, chasing down
01:12the ball.
01:12But Spain's key for this was their organisation and discipline when defending high up the pitch.
01:18And the numbers actually back up how good they are at pressing as well.
01:22They lead the World Cup so far for pressed sequences, just the number of times you press an opposition team
01:28successfully, as well as how high up the pitch they actually start their pressing.
01:33And this is a really interesting number because on top of being the best defensive team at this tournament, I
01:39showed you earlier with only conceding one goal, they're also the most aggressive presses, which in most cases leaves you
01:46a little bit more open at the back.
01:47But Spain kind of have the best of both worlds, so how do they do it?
01:52Let's take this example from the first half, and Spain are positionally really high up the pitch here, but they're
01:58already outnumbering France in their build-up in this area quite substantially as well.
02:03So naturally, they try and swing the ball back round to the other side of the pitch, because if there's
02:07an outnumbering on this side of the pitch, you'd imagine there'd be one in their favour on the other side
02:12of the pitch.
02:13But as they go to do this straight back to Mike Mignon, Oyarzabelle is aware of what they're trying to
02:19do, and he curves his run perfectly just to stop this ball out to Upamecano.
02:24And it's a really simple but quite clever tweak to make with that run, because it leaves Mignon looking at
02:30this situation right here, and I mean, just what is he supposed to do?
02:35He ends up still trying to get the ball out of his side to Jules Koundé, but Alex Baena reads
02:41this, he's already one step ahead, he knows that that's the only option he's going to be able to have,
02:46so he moves into that exact area, even before that ball has been played, and naturally he intercepts it, and
02:53now look at this situation that Spain have now got.
02:55They're six versus five in what is probably the most dangerous area of the pitch, and they create a really
03:02good opening from this situation, and they're really unlucky not to score from this.
03:06But it all comes from Spain's organisation, they're essentially able to set a trap that means France have no other
03:13option but going the way
03:14that Spain know that they're going to have to go, so it's a really effective way of pressing.
03:19And that's one of the issues that this France side have, and the balance of their team, it's not particularly
03:24versatile when trying to play out of these situations,
03:27because ideally in this situation you'd want Adrian Rabiot to be more readily available to carry the ball through the
03:33lines,
03:34or Schuermann to be maybe less deep and be a bit more progressive as a passing option,
03:38or even Michael Alisse, like he's done so much for his tournament to drop in and provide another body to
03:45try and play out of their press.
03:46But whether it's through sheer mis-profiling or mis-instruction from the manager, none of this was able to happen,
03:52and it was a really constant issue for France during this game.
03:56But look, in fairness to France, one of the most dangerous places that you can be if you're in opposition
04:01and you're playing against the French
04:02is if you get baited into pressing them and they're able to play through that press,
04:06because let's take that situation from earlier, where they tried to play out,
04:10and if Mike Mignon goes slightly more direct, maybe he goes slightly earlier,
04:14then they're away and they're ready to run at your back line because they've played over the majority of your
04:20pressing players.
04:20And in fact, they did do this on a few occasions, but Spain was still able to deal with it.
04:26So how did they do it?
04:28Take this moment at the start of the second half.
04:30They're pressing again, pretty similarly to the first example I showed you,
04:33and the ball goes out to Upamecano this time,
04:36and it's Baena who tries to cut off that angle once again, using the exact same curved run.
04:42He's trying to cut off that ball out to the fullback and stop that pass being played.
04:46But this time, it's slightly chipped into Koundé, and Baena is a little bit late on the uptake,
04:50and he's slightly late to the ball, and France are seemingly able to play out
04:54and eliminate all of these players from their press.
04:57And this time, the ball does get into Alisse.
04:59It gets into that front line who's picked it up in what is usually a really dangerous position if you're
05:05France.
05:05And honestly, at this point, I'm thinking,
05:08ah, well, Spain have done really well.
05:10They've tried to shut out France being able to play out the back,
05:12but this is so early in the second half that France have instantly found a fix for it.
05:16So we might as well wrap it up and go home,
05:18because France are going to grab two or three goals in this game,
05:21and they'll be in the World Cup final.
05:22But it didn't happen.
05:24And that's largely down to two things.
05:26First of all, Spain's elite defensive profiles,
05:29they're all really good at recovering in these moments,
05:32but also their discipline in these areas.
05:35France were able to win a lot of free kicks when in transition
05:37because teams dive in, teams panic.
05:40But Spain didn't do that.
05:41Because as Alisse runs through,
05:44Kukure is able to keep pace with him almost stride for stride.
05:47And normally in this scenario, he'll either skip right past him
05:50and feed through one of the other forwards that are running,
05:52or just win a foul, like I said.
05:54But in this case, it's not only Kukure who sticks with Michael Alisse,
05:58but it's Rodri who comes from this position to this position here,
06:02and he converges on the ball.
06:04And like I say, this scenario here almost always leads to a foul
06:07because you've got two players almost sandwiching the attacker.
06:10But Rodri's really clever with it.
06:12He just sort of gently guides him back into the path of Mark Kukure,
06:15and they win the ball back.
06:17And dare I say, they do it almost easily.
06:20And like I mentioned, this was another really important part
06:23to how Spain were able to win this game.
06:25Their recovery defending was both really physical,
06:28but also really disciplined.
06:30And that was the key.
06:31But once again, let's take this moment here.
06:33They lose the ball through a sloppy pass in their own half,
06:36and France looked to be away.
06:38And then bang, in comes Fabian Ruiz to win it back.
06:40And it's almost patterned the way they recover the ball.
06:43There's a knowledge of everyone's individual roles in this situation.
06:47They're just better coached out of possession than France are.
06:50So like I said at the top of the video,
06:52Spain are the best defensive team at this World Cup.
06:55And not just because they've only conceded one goal so far at this tournament,
06:59but because they're always able to nullify
07:01the opposition's biggest attacking threats in almost every scenario.
07:05And let's take this here.
07:07It's Spain's average position map.
07:08It's going right to left because this is the France team.
07:11So just bear that in mind.
07:12And it looks relatively ordinary maybe on the face of it.
07:15But what it is, is it's notably bunched up in the middle area of the pitch.
07:20In fact, 21 in there, that's their striker, Mikel O'Azabel.
07:24And he's behind Dani Olmo, Fabian Ruiz, Lamin Yamal, and Alex Baena.
07:30So they bunch up this area in the middle of the pitch.
07:32And that is the zone that France are so desperate to try and access.
07:36And they just didn't let them have any sort of time or space
07:40to do any of the damage that they've done so far in this tournament.
07:43And with this Spain style of play,
07:45there was a real casualty in that French front line.
07:49And it was namely Michael Alisse.
07:50Because his introduction to the side post 2024 Euros
07:54made them the most potent attacking side in the world.
07:58And this time, they just looked like that quite uninspiring French side at Euro 2024.
08:04They didn't look anywhere near as free in the attacking areas
08:08because they weren't as free in the attacking areas.
08:10Spain, like I say, did such a job of shutting their entire front line out.
08:14But mainly the supply lines of that front line.
08:17And that supply line, so far this tournament, has always been Michael Alisse.
08:21In fact, this is his successful pass map from that game.
08:25And, well, just look at it. We're back the right way around now.
08:28So this is the France team going left to right.
08:30And no, I've not put this on the wrong way around or anything.
08:33It is going left to right.
08:34Like I say, he's just always passing backwards.
08:37There's not a single pass that ended in any of these sort of central attacking areas,
08:42let alone in the box.
08:44He was just nothing in this game.
08:47He was just sort of there.
08:48He didn't penetrate any of those areas that he's normally so good at doing
08:53for this France team.
08:54Like I say, because Spain were just so effective at shutting him out.
08:58And just one more graph.
08:59This is an example of how ineffective France were in this game.
09:02It's their successful dribble map from the entire front four
09:06across the entire 90 minutes.
09:08And, yeah, that's one, two dribbles out on that side.
09:12And worst of all, they were both in the opening 15 minutes of the game.
09:16So from this point onwards, let's look at how many dribbles they had.
09:20And, yeah, we're all just looking at a blank Subutio pitch.
09:23That's some pretty good content, isn't it?
09:25But it just shows you, again, how limited France were at getting into any sort of dangerous area
09:31because they just weren't able to.
09:33And lastly, let's just look at Spain's second goal here as a direct comparison
09:37for how both teams were out of possession.
09:40Because so far, I've described Spain out of possession as organized and disciplined.
09:44So the only way you can really describe France is the opposite of that.
09:48Disorganized and undisciplined.
09:51Ill-disciplined?
09:52Dis-disciplined?
09:53No, undisciplined.
09:54That's English.
09:54But essentially, just the opposite of what Spain were.
09:58And as the game wore on, France needed to come out and press Spain even further.
10:02And they got to this point here.
10:04And Maxence Lacroix has jumped all the way up onto Dani Olmo.
10:08And France have got a considerable amount of bodies in the Spain half.
10:12But one simple bounce pass from Pedro Porro into Rodri and back again.
10:17And Spain are just out like that.
10:19That's it.
10:20And Lacroix drops off Dani Olmo again.
10:23And Schuermany down here knows that Spain have just cut right through their press with
10:27two really simple passes.
10:29Like, just look at how frustrated he is.
10:31And it's because it's so disorganized and undisciplined.
10:35And then because Kone here presumably doesn't know that Lacroix has dropped back off because
10:39he's not told him and they don't really know what they're doing out of possession,
10:43he jumps up to just leave this yawning chasm in the middle of the pitch for the most
10:48bobby basic 10-yard pass to go into that area and find Dani Olmo who's able to run at that
10:54France back line.
10:55And this may be getting a little bit repetitive, but just stick with me a second.
10:59Because you know that I was praising Spain for how good their recovery runs were, for
11:03how hard they worked off the ball.
11:05And guess what?
11:06There's a reason I wasn't praising France for that.
11:09Because Porro comes inside and he plays another one too, this time with Dani Olmo.
11:13And just look at both Douay and Kone.
11:16They might as well be traffic Kones at this point.
11:19Not a defensive thought is flowing through either of their brains.
11:22And bang, that's 2-0.
11:24Au revoir to maybe the best attack we've seen at a World Cup until they had to play a team
11:29that were organized enough defensively to be able to cope with it.
11:32Because actually they looked really one-dimensional in this game.
11:35And that was mainly through how good Spain were.
11:38But also France were just poor.
11:40So yeah, that's how Spain were able to completely stop the seemingly unstoppable.
11:45To completely nullify maybe the best attack we've seen at the World Cup in the last 20
11:49years.
11:50And they just did it through quite basic pressing.
11:53They did it through being really organized.
11:54They did it through really good recovery runs.
11:56And all you have to be able to do on the ball is just be one of the best in
12:00possession teams
12:01we've seen at a major tournament.
12:03And they were also able to do that.
12:05So why didn't more teams do that?
12:06I don't know.
12:07But yeah, like I say, France looked really one-dimensional in this game.
12:10I feel like out of possession, Spain just had it right.
12:13This is a team that's really well coached versus a team that has some really good profiles
12:18in it.
12:18And the team that has a really good system came out on top.
12:21So that's football for you.
12:23Subscribe to the Adam Cleary Football Channel.
12:25We'll be back with an England video tomorrow.
12:27Just wanted to squeeze this one in because I thought last night's semi-final was bloody interesting.
12:32You can get me across all the socials.
12:34They'll be down below here somewhere as well.
12:36And until next time, come back.
12:39Watch us.
12:39The World Cup is so nearly over.
12:41Thank God.
12:42I'm really enjoying this tournament.
12:44But yeah, I could do with a break.
12:45So thank you very much for watching.
12:47And goodbye.
12:49Why don't I shout goodbye?
12:51Just goodbye.
12:52Bye will do.
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