The armband suits Morata wonderfully, as he acts as a leader on and off the field in a Spain that has a ticket to next year's Euro Cup within reach. In fact, if he wins on Sunday in Oslo the pass will be mathematical. He finally kneeled Scotland in Seville, where the red team regained their breath to fight for first place after equaling the goal difference with the leader.
The script of the game could have been blown up in the first seconds of the duel. Because Scotland did not plan to deceive anyone and already threw the ball long as soon as they took the center, anticipating a rough match for Spain. No surprise there. But as soon as he recovered the ball, the red bordered on tranquility. An excellent filtered pass from Morata before the great movement between the lines by Ferran Torres that the Barça forward, who seems to have lost his gunpowder along the way, wasted by crossing the ball excessively with his left leg.
From then on, the game went uphill for the Spanish team against an unfriendly opponent, one of those who surely fill technicians like Bordalás. Unfriendly, yes, but with very clear ideas and capable of taking over his prey at the slightest mistake, as already happened in Glasgow and was almost repeated this Thursday.
La Cartuja vibrated with its own – little can be blamed on the stands – but it took a world for De la Fuente's team to upset the descendants of Braveheart. The corners, always taken close and at the near post, seemed the biggest threat for Scotland, brilliant first classified in the group that landed in Seville with full victories. While Dykes and Laporte were lost in underground wars – defending the robust British striker must be a nightmare – Oyarzábal struggled looking for the rival goal without finishing his shots.
The minutes progressed and there was no way to get a dangerous look at Gunn, who had barely collected a ball from his goal in the entire qualifying phase. It was captain Morata, with his continuous diagonal unchecking behind the crowded Scottish defense, one of the few who seemed to offer solutions to his teammates, with a very static Merino, a Rodri who barely intervened and a Gavi who did not stop running but who seemed to have left the compass at home.
Spain was not in any kind of trouble in the rearguard, with Laporte and Le Normand established as the undisputed center backs of De la Fuente's team, but it did not convey its control of the ball on occasions. Only Merino, chasing a rebound in the area, increased the decibels of La Cartuja with a shot at Gunn's right post. Then it was Morata who found the net, finishing with his studs, but in a clear offside position.
Rookie Bryan Zaragoza was urgently called up by De la Fuente at half-time and it didn't take him long to show why he is one of the hottest players, shaking the Scottish foundations with every ball he touched. Spain bubbled between Zaragoza's shot and Morata's maneuver but there was no way to meet the net. However, the Sevillian night was frozen with the lateral foul given by Carvajal, which McTominay launched into the goal. The VAR interrupted the Scottish party to annul it due to an offside by Hendry, also saving the ballot for Unai Simón.
Spain recovered wonderfully from the scare and once again locked its rival in the area. And, this time, he did not fail, even able to match Glasgow's affront. First it was Navas' periscope that found Morata and, later, Sancet that teamed up with fortune to close the score and put the finishing touch to the National Festival of Spain. The Eurocup is getting closer.
2 - Spain: Unai Simón; Carvajal (Jesús Navas, m.67), Le Normand, Laporte, Balde (Fran García, m.46); Gavi, Rodri, Merino (Sancet, m.67); Ferrán Torres, Morata (Joselu, m.84), Oyarzabal (Bryan Zaragoza, m.46).
0 - Escocia: Gunn; Hickey, Porteous (Gilmour, m.87), Hendry, McKenna, Robertson (Patterson, m.44); McGinn, McTominay, McGregor (McLean, m.87), Christie (Armstrong, m.79); Dykes (Adams, m.79).
Goals: 1-0, M.73: Morata. 2-0, M.86: Sancet.
Referee: Serdar Gozubuyuk (Netherlands). He admonished Merino (m.49), Carvajal (m.59), Unai Simón (m.60) and Laporte (m.90) from Spain, and Dykes (m.36), Patterson (m.90) from the Scottish team. m.50) and Hendry (m.84).
Incidents: Group A match of the qualifying phase for the Euro 2024 in Germany, played at the La Cartuja Stadium in front of 45,623 spectators, including some 4,000 Scottish fans.
