Euro 2012 qualifiers: Spain vs. Lithuania – Full Time Report (Part 1)
The Euro 2012 qualifiers so far have been totally one sided for the World Champions as the Spanish side showed total domination throughout their qualifying campaign. The "wonder" team was able to defeat Liechtenstein 4-0 during
their last qualifying game.
Even though the Spaniards have 6 points in two games, they still lagged the confidence that they usually have and this was because of the 4-1 loss that they suffered against the Argentineans in a friendly game that was played on
South American soil right after the Spaniards played the Euro 2012 qualifiers.
On the other hand, Lithuania also had a good start in the European tournament. The European side featured in two games and was now playing in the home ground of Spain; however, they managed to find 4 points with the help of the
two games that they played as they managed to win one and the match against Scotland ended in a goalless draw, giving both the sides only a single point.
Both the teams knew how important the match was and it was Lithuania who featured their first team while the Spaniards were the ones who were missing out on two of their key players. One of them was Fernando Torres who injured
himself during the match against Blackpool, which his team lost at their home ground. The other man was more important than Fernando Torres, it was Xavi Hernandez.
Xavi Hernandez showed the world that even keeping it all simple during football can help you win matches. By providing the Spaniards with the highest amount of completed passes, Xavi Hernandez is definitely the key towards success
of the Spanish team.
It was Xavi who was not a part of the game against Argentina and the World Champions were crushed by the Argentineans. It was the same dynamic Barcelona man who did not feature for his club during the last weekend and they suffered
a draw at home against a mid table team, Mallorca.
With Xavi Hernandez out, it was simply difficult for the Spaniards to find a replacement. However, the Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas was the only suitable player who could replace Xavi Hernandez, but he was out because of a hamstring
injury as well and could not join his national side for the encounter against Lithuania.
With these two players totally ruled out, the Spanish coach was definitely confused about who to play in the starting 11. Pedro Rodriguez was also ruled out for 3 weeks because of the injury that he suffered during the match against
Mallorca.
However, the experienced Spanish team's coach Vicente Del Bosque definitely had something in store and he featured a traditional 4-4-2 as he took advantage of the home ground and the home crowd. Even though Gerard Pique was expected
to rest during this match because of the entire hard schedule that he had alongside his club Barcelona, he still featured as a centre midfielder for the Spanish side along with his Barcelona team mate Carlos Puyol.
With these two playing as centre backs, Iker Casillas took his positions between the two poles as the goal stopper and the captain of the team while Sergio Ramos and Joan Capdevila were playing as full backs on the right and the
left flanks respectively.
Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta featured in the midfield with Xabi Alonso not even being on the bench. Despite such strong players playing in the midfield, Santiago Gonzales and David Silva featured on the wings as Iniesta and
Gonzales used to swap their positions at the right flank.
Up front there were two strikers, David Villa and Fernando Llorente. Both of them tried their best to find a goal and both of them used to switch positions with each other on the right and the left to take their shots on goal.
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