European Football Championship 2016 / Spain

This article covers the Spanish national team at the 2016 European Football Championship in France . It was the tenth participation for Spain. Since the final round has been played with 16 teams since 1996, Spain has always been able to qualify. The Spanish team took on as defending champions after being the first team to successfully defend the title in 2012 .

qualification

The Spanish team before the final qualifying match against Ukraine on October 12, 2015

Spain completed the qualification for the European Championship in Group C . After the 2014 World Cup, when Spain had already been eliminated in the preliminary round as defending champions, Xabi Alonso , Xavi and record scorer David Villa resigned from the national team. The Selección qualified on October 9, 2015, one matchday before the end. A year earlier, the Spaniards lost a qualifying game for the first time since October 2006. Overall, coach Vicente del Bosque , who sat on the bench for the 100th time in the qualifying game against Belarus on June 14, 2015 , used 33 players, but only Sergio Busquets in all ten games. Jordi Alba was not used once , in two games Paco Alcácer , Gerard Piqué , Pedro and David Silva were not used. The team's top scorer was Paco Alcácer with a total of five goals. Fernando Torres , top scorer of the European Championship in 2012, was not taken into account . In the qualifying game on September 8, 2015, Sergio Ramos was the third player to win the 100th international match after Iker Casillas and Xavi. Cesc Fàbregas made his 100th international match in the last qualifier . After qualifying, they won another friendly against England 2-0 in November, and another friendly against Belgium was canceled after the terrorist attacks in Paris . In the FIFA world rankings , the Spaniards, who dropped back to 10th place after the premature end of the World Cup, improved to third place.

Games

All results from a Spanish point of view.

date	Venue	opponent	Result	Goal scorers
09/08/2014	Estadio Ciudad de Valencia , Valencia	North Macedonia	5: 1 (3: 1)	1-0 Sergio Ramos (16th / penalty), 2-0 Paco Alcácer (17th), 2: 1 Agim Ibraimi (28 / penalty), 3: 1 Sergio Busquets (45th + 3 ′), 4: 1 David Silva (50th), 5: 1 Pedro (90th + 1 ′)
09/10/2014	Štadión pod Dubňom , Žilina ( SVK )	Slovakia	1: 2 (0: 1)	0: 1 Juraj Kucka (17th), 1: 1 Paco Alcácer (82nd), 1: 2 Miroslav Stoch (87th)
10/12/2014	Josy Barthel Stadium , Luxembourg City ( LUX )	Luxembourg	4: 0 (2: 0)	1-0 David Silva (27th), 2-0 Paco Alcácer (42nd), 3-0 Diego Costa (69th), 4-0 Juan Bernat (88th)
11/15/2014	Nuevo Colombino , Huelva	Belarus	3: 0 (2: 0)	1-0 Isco (18th), 2-0 Sergio Busquets (19th), 3-0 Pedro (55th)
03/27/2015	Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán , Seville	Ukraine	1: 0 (1: 0)	1-0 Álvaro Morata (28th)
06/14/2015	Baryssau-Arena , Baryssau ( BLR )	Belarus	1: 0 (1: 0)	1: 0 David Silva (45th)
05.09.2015	Estadio Nuevo Carlos Tartiere , Oviedo	Slovakia	2: 0 (2: 0)	1-0 Jordi Alba (5th), 2-0 Iniesta (30th / penalty)
09/08/2015	Philip II Arena , Skopje ( MKD )	North Macedonia	1: 0 (1: 0)	1-0 Tome Pačovski (8th / own goal)
09/10/2015	Estadio Las Gaunas , Logroño	Luxembourg	4: 0 (1: 0)	1: 0 Santi Cazorla (42.), 2: 0, 3: 0 Paco Alcácer (67., 80.), 4: 0 Santi Cazorla (85.)
October 12, 2015	Olympic Stadium , Kiev ( UKR )	Ukraine	1: 0 (1: 0)	1-0 Mario Gaspar (22nd)

table

Paco Alcácer , top Spanish goalscorer in qualification

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Spain	10	9	0	1	023: 300	+20	27
2.	Slovakia	10	7th	1	2	017: 800	+9	22nd
3.	Ukraine	10	6th	1	3	014: 400	+10	19th
4th	Belarus	10	3	2	5	008:140	−6	11
5.	Luxembourg	10	1	1	8th	006:270	−21	04th
6th	North Macedonia	10	1	1	8th	006:180	−12	04th
Status: October 12, 2015

preparation

After the end of the qualification, the Spaniards won a test match in Alicante against England 2-0 on November 13th . Since several terrorist attacks happened in Paris on the same day during the game between EM host France and world champion Germany and some of the assassins came from Belgium , the game on 17th in Brussels against the new world number one Belgium was canceled by the Belgians.

On March 24th in Udine a 1-1 draw was achieved against European Championship participants Italy , three days later a goalless draw in Cluj-Napoca against Romania followed , in which Sergi Roberto was a newcomer. In the immediate preparations for the European Championship, the team played twice on a neutral pitch, first on May 29th in St. Gallen against the Bosnian national team (3-1 without players from Madrid and Barcelona) and then against South Korea on June 1st in Salzburg .

Finally, on June 7th, a friendly against Georgia took place in Getafe , which the Spanish team lost 1-0 before the defending champions flew to the French island of Île de Ré , where the Iberians are based in the European Championship.

Squad

On May 17, a provisional squad with 25 players was named. Fernando Torres, the top scorer of the last European Championships, was not taken into account . The final roster was announced on May 31st. Most of the players (6) were nominated by champions and cup winners FC Barcelona .

No.	position	Surname	society	birth date	NM Sp.	NM gates	debut
01	goalkeeper	Iker Casillas	FC Porto	May 20, 1981	167	0	2000
13	goalkeeper	David de Gea	Manchester United	0Nov 7, 1990	8th	0	2014	4th
23	goalkeeper	Sergio Rico	Sevilla FC	0Sep 1 1993	1	0	2016
18th	Defense	Jordi Alba	FC Barcelona	21 Mar 1989	42	6th	2011	4th
02	Defense	César Azpilicueta	Chelsea FC	Aug 28, 1989	15th	0	2013	1
04th	Defense	Marc Bartra	FC Barcelona	Jan 15, 1991	10	0	2013
12	Defense	Héctor Bellerin	Arsenal FC	19 Mar 1995	2	0	2016
16	Defense	Juanfran	Atlético Madrid	0Jan. 9, 1985	17th	1	2012	4th
03	Defense	Gerard Piqué	FC Barcelona	0Feb. 2, 1987	76	4th	2009	4th	1
15th	Defense	Sergio Ramos	real Madrid	30th Mar 1986	133	6th	2005	4th		1
17th	Defense	Mikel San José	Athletic Bilbao	May 30, 1989	6th	0	2014
14th	midfield	Thiago	FC Bayern Munich	Apr 11, 1991	9	0	2011	2
05	midfield	Sergio Busquets	FC Barcelona	July 16, 1988	83	2	2009	4th		1
10	midfield	Cesc Fàbregas	Chelsea FC	0May 4th 1987	105	15th	2006	4th
06th	midfield	Andrés Iniesta	FC Barcelona	May 11, 1984	108	13	2006	4th
08th	midfield	Koke	Atlético Madrid	0Jan. 8, 1992	22nd	0	2013	1
11	midfield	Pedro	Chelsea FC	July 28, 1987	57	17th	2010	2
21st	midfield	David Silva	Manchester City	0Jan. 8, 1986	98	24	2006	4th		1
19th	midfield	Bruno Soriano	Villarreal CF	June 12, 1984	8th	0	2010	2
20th	attack	Aritz Aduriz	Athletic Bilbao	Feb 11, 1981	5	0	2010	3
07th	attack	Álvaro Morata	Juventus Turin	Oct 23, 1992	9	3	2014	4th	3	1
22nd	attack	Nolito	Celta Vigo	Oct 15, 1986	8th	4th	2014	4th	1	1
09	attack	Lucas Vázquez	real Madrid	0July 1, 1991	0	0		1

Coach: Vicente del Bosque

Players who were only in the preliminary roster

Daniel Carvajal was injured in the Champions League final and was replaced by Héctor Bellerín . On May 31, Isco and Saúl were canceled.

position	Surname	society	Date of birth	International matches	Länderspiel- gates	debut	EM games
Defense	Daniel Carvajal	real Madrid	Jan. 11, 1992	5	0	2014
midfield	Isco	real Madrid	Apr 21, 1992	14th	1	2013
midfield	Saul	Atlético Madrid	Nov 21, 1994	0	0

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} As of June 1, 2016

Allegations of abuse

On June 10, 2016, shortly before the start of the European Championship, some tabloid media reported that the Spanish international David de Gea had been removed from the squad. He is accused of abusing a woman together with two other soccer players, Iker Muniain and Isco , as part of an U-21 international match in Madrid in 2012 . De Gea dismissed the allegations at a press conference as lying. The Spanish coach stood by his goalkeeper and used him in all games.

Finals

Toulouse Bordeaux Nice Île de Ré Saint-Denis (AF)

Venues (green = won, red = lost, black = not yet played), quarters (blue)

At the draw for the six final round groups on December 12, 2015, Spain was the defending champion in Pot 1, but would have achieved this due to the UEFA coefficient and could therefore not face either host France or world champions Germany in the group matches. Spain was drawn as the group head of Group D, was drawn as opponents from Croatia, the Czech Republic and Turkey and was able to play the group matches in the south of France. Spain had a positive record against all three group opponents before the EM. The last group game was played against the Croatians in the preliminary round of the last European Championship and won 1-0. Before that there were only friendlies, only the first of which was lost. Two more were won, one ended in a draw. Before that, there were only competitive games against the Czechs - in the qualifications for the 1998 World Cup and the Euro 2012 with three wins and one draw at the first meeting. There had been 10 games against Turkey before with five wins, four draws and one painful defeat in qualifying for the 1954 World Cup , after which there was a play-off that ended 2-2 and Spain missed the World Cup by drawing lots . The Spaniards previously only played in Bordeaux - against France.

Spain started with a 1-0 win against the Czech Republic, which does not reflect the superiority of the Spaniards. Against the Turks, they were able to convert their superiority into goals and won 3-0. So they were already qualified for the round of 16. In the game for the group victory, they competed with the same line-up, whereas the Croatians who had already qualified for the second round did without some regular players. Spain started thinking too and Álvaro Morata gave them the lead in the seventh minute with his third goal at this European Championship. After that, the Croatians were able to make the game more balanced and had scoring chances while the Spaniards largely had no chance. Almost with the half-time whistle, the Croatians managed to equalize and in the second half the winning goal to win the group. The Spaniards lost a European Championship game for the first time since their 0-1 defeat in the first round against Portugal on June 20, 2004, and there was already in the round of 16 in the final stadium the final against Italy, which was already the group winner in its group before the last group game. The record against Italy was even before the European Championship with 10 wins and losses, 14 draws, but Spain could only win two competitive games against the Italians. The first competitive win against the Italians came on September 2, 1920 at the Olympic Games, the last in the European Championship final in 2012. In March, the two separated 1-1 in a friendly in Udine . Both meet again in qualifying for the 2018 World Cup. It is the sixth encounter at the European Championships - there have been no pairings more often. Spain lost 2-0, as the Spaniards couldn't cope with the Italians' offensive strategy and were only able to begin their short passing game. The first goal came in the 33rd minute, when de Gea could only parry a sharp free kick forward and the Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini dusted off. But then they were able to thank de Gea that the Italians did not get any more goals while they could hardly create chances themselves. When the Italians weakened, they got better into the game but couldn't take any of their chances. In stoppage time, the Azzurri then added the second goal. The result is now negative against the Italians and Spain, the first European champions to fail in the round of 16. In the FIFA world rankings , Spain fell two places. For Spain itself, this means the end of an 8-year golden era with two European Championship and one World Cup titles, because after the tournament many national players ended their careers in the national team.

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Croatia	3	2	1	0	005: 300	+2	07th
2.	Spain	3	2	0	1	005: 200	+3	06th
3.	Turkey	3	1	0	2	002: 400	−2	03
4th	Czech Republic	3	0	1	2	002: 500	−3	01

Mon., June 13, 2016 at 3:00 p.m. in Toulouse
Spain	-	Czech Republic	1: 0 (0: 0)
Friday, June 17, 2016 at 9:00 p.m. in Nice
Spain	-	Turkey	3: 0 (2: 0)
Tue., June 21, 2016 at 9:00 p.m. in Bordeaux
Croatia	-	Spain	2: 1 (1: 1)

Knockout phase

Round of 16 Monday, June 27, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. in Saint-Denis
Italy	-	Spain	2: 0 (1: 0)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ FIFA World Ranking (23 October 2014)
2. ↑ FIFA World Ranking (5th November 2015)
3. ^ Spain - Georgia, national teams friendly games, season 2016, 4th matchday. In: kicker.de. Retrieved June 13, 2016 . 
4. ↑ "Spain is testing against Bosnia and South Korea" , dfb.de
5. ↑ Del Bosque renounces Torres and Costa. In: UEFA . May 17, 2016, Retrieved May 17, 2016 (Spanish). 
6. ↑ "OFICIAL | Esta es la lista definitiva de la Selección española para la Eurocopa de Francia ” , sefutbol.com
7. ↑ "Arsenal's Hector Bellerin makes Spain Euro 2016 squad, but Saul and Isco Could miss out" , mirror.co.uk
8. ^ "Vázquez and Bellerín in the squad of Spain" , uefa.com
9. ^ Allegations of abuse against Spaniard De Gea , kurier.at
10. ↑ Spanish goalkeeper de Gea allegedly deleted from the EM squad , focus.de
11. ↑ Was De Gea sent home?
12. ^ "De Gea:" I am the first to be surprised, it's a lie and utterly false "" , sefutbol.com
13. ↑ “UEFA EURO 2016 final draw” , uefa.com
14. ↑ Spain vs. Italy