Heavy rain had threatened to derail the match against Namibia before a ball had been bowled.
Greedy for the ball no more, Spain has won a game by playing unlike Spain. After La Roja's 3-0 victory over Croatia 3-0 at Euro 2024 on Friday, the match statistics showed something extremely rare: Spain had only 46% possession. Stats analyst Opta said it was the first time in 136 competitive matches that Spain had less of the ball than its opponent.
Few are talking up Italy’s chance of retaining the European Championship they won at Wembley in 2021. They certainly do not look like the era-defining Spain who were the first team ever to win this competition twice in a row, and only keen students of European football would be familiar with a majority of their squad. Yet here was a night to show why they must not be discounted.