Carvajal's "motivating" talk and Navas's sincerity: "The coach has had a bad time"

Eleven years later, Spain is champion. A team that arrived wrapped in doubts but overcame its demons, until the bad luck of the penalty shootout against a Croatia expert in this luck, came out reinforced from a competition that is not a Euro Cup or a World Cup, but a balm for Luis de la Fuente, who arrived in the middle of a storm but, when you have to beat Italy, European champion, and Croatia, podium in Qatar, it is never a minor trophy. It is the oxygen cylinder that he needed to continue shaping a project that is resembling what the La Riojan is looking for. King Felipe VI, who will receive the team this Monday at the Palacio de la Zarzuela, will be able to ask him about it.

“I am very happy for what we have achieved, because we have been squeezing our players to the maximum. I told them before the batch that for me they were already champions because of the hard work they had done. They are so honored that someone who felt that it was not right has given the penalty to another”, confessed the coach with a lot of pause. The procession took her inside. More exultant was his 'boss', the president of the Federation, Luis Rubiales, who dedicated it “to all the boys and girls who play soccer in Spain and need these idols and these illusions.”

Even with euphoria oozing from every pore, Rubiales received the call from King Felipe VI. The monarch not only took the opportunity to congratulate him, but also to extend an invitation to the champions. As confirmed by the RFEF press team, the team will be received at noon today at the Palacio de La Zarzuela, shortly after landing in Barajas from Amsterdam.

At the head of the expedition, together with De la Fuente, will be the captain, Jordi Alba. The left-back, after recovering his best feelings in this Final Four, did not miss the opportunity to remember Luis Enrique, about to sign for PSG, “because he and his coaching staff brought us here.”

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The victory began to take shape in the locker room and had the same protagonist: Dani Carvajal. Rodrigo was once again the compass, Unai Simón's hands emerged to save two maximum penalties, but the Real Madrid full-back acted as a veteran, throwing the last shot like a panenka and revealing what had happened before jumping onto the field to dispute the first title of a generation. «It was a unique opportunity for those of us who have been left out of the championships too soon. It was my first final that I did not play as a starter and I have given a motivational talk in which I have gotten emotional, “he confessed.. I knew that I was going to take the sixth penalty. “We were very clear. We have trained him and we knew that they like 0-0 and that, despite being specialists, their goalkeeper throws himself in early,” he revealed.. What happened in Qatar with Morocco came to mind, not this time.

“There are very young people in this team and we have been very strong mentally. That's why I give this team a ten. There are things to improve, but the first step was to win”, added an excellent Rodrigo.

Croatian marabunta

Spain silenced a stadium that looked like the Maksimir of Zagreb. Of the 41,000 fans who filled the stands in this final, only 6,000 were Spanish, and it was noticeable. The Croats roared throughout the game and the Rotterdam stadium trembled. Flares appeared in the backgrounds that slipped through security, which did hold a Spanish fan who was carrying an Asturias flag for a long time. The flares passed, but the flag had to be requisitioned. Along with them, the one from Los Palacios, the Sevillian town of 38,000 inhabitants that had three of them in Luis de la Fuente's eleven: Gavi, Fabián Ruiz and Jesús Navas, who became the only player in the world with a Eurocup, could well have worn , World Cup and League of Nations in his record.

Excited after a terrible season that closed with glory, the Sevilla captain was the only one who admitted the coach's suffering. “The coach has had a bad time. We are an incredible group and we deserve this,” said the veteran footballer who retired injured.

Navas, against Ivanusec, on Sunday in Rotterdam. AFP

The few Spaniards had a hard time making themselves heard among the Croatian mob, which started the final with a great whistle to the Spanish anthem. A very unsporting gesture that surprised even the Spanish players. This was later joined by the flares and the glasses that flew from the bottoms. The Spanish team overcame this environmental pressure, which was maintained throughout the game.. The two teams were so respected on the field that even the German referee Felix Zwayer did not want to intervene in that equality and did not see two possible hands from the Croats or a hold on Le Normand in the area in the last second of the first half.

Joselu's nerve

After a second half in which De la Fuente used the talisman Joselu and Dani Olmo, in the last minutes of the game, the two teams were able to open the game, Ansu Fati in the 83rd minute saw how Perisic under the sticks deprived him of the goal in the clearest occasion, with which he had already beaten Livakovic. Nor was Asensio right to avoid an extension that for the Croats is their daily bread with a cross shot. Of the 13 heats he has played in 25 years, ten have taken them to 120 minutes. And they entered so well that Nacho was a savior, scooping a ball from Majer when, alone, he stood up to Unai Simón. Spain was saved, unable to finish off Croatia on a high right hand from Dani Olmo.

The Croats were not afraid of the penalty shootout. In that luck they had never failed. Four out of four won. This time Spain was psyched. There was one with special motivation. “I asked the coach to shoot the first one, because I knew how he was going to do it and he had all the motivation. And it came out well”, confessed Joselu, who could not have entered the national team on a better footing.

Spain snapped the Croatian streak in the bud and left their captain, Luka Modric, approaching the twilight of his career without lifting a trophy for Croatia.