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Euro 2012: Why Spain’s Defense Was More Impressive Than Its Offense
Published: July 13, 2012
Considering the fact that the side faced teams intent on stifling their approach with 10 men behind the ball or, as Portugal tried to do, pressuring high and taking the team out of its rhythm, meant that Spain's decision to control games as best as possible, something they do with beautiful possession, was a smart one.
But that topic can be saved for another time.
What Spain did defensively was more impressive than their offensive exploits during Euro 2012. Spain gave up very few quality chances to their opponents and nullified some major attacking threats during their run.
Firstly, some statistics from the overall tournament showed just good the Spanish defense was.
Spain conceded only one goal in 570 minutes of play. That was very much down to how the side defended during the very few moments in which their opponents attacked.
Italy was the team who scored that lone goal against Spain in the 61st minute of both sides first game of the tournament. That meant Spain went 509 minutes without conceding en route to the trophy with no goals at all conceded in the knockout rounds.
For even further evidence of their strength in defense, statistical analysis on Whoscored.com showed that Spain had the least amount of shots conceded per game—8.3 to be exact.
It goes just beyond the statistics though as each game presented its different threats. As a result, concentration levels in the Spanish defensive line had to be extremely high considering their lack of involvement through most games.
Looking at each game Spain played in their were very few clear-cut chances for their opponents during the entire tournament.
Italy had the goal, a Mario Balotelli chance t...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football
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