Xabi Alonso grabs both goals for Spain as the defending champions ease into the last four with a 2-0 win over lacklustre France. Vicente Del Bosque’s side now square up to Paulo Bento’s Portugal in the first semi-final on Wednesday evening and, with their players now topping the leaderboard in all four classifications in the McDonald’s game, further Fantasy investment looks imminent:
Spain 2 France 0
Del Bosque made just a single alteration to the side that saw off Croatia in the previous match – in came Cesc Fabregas in the “false nine” role, with Fernando Torres dropping down to the bench. Question marks continue to hang over the Spain central forward position ahead of the semi-finals, then, with Torres and Fabregas both afforded two starts apiece thus far – bearing in mind that their game against Portugal in the first of the semi-finals, however, Fantasy managers will be handed a chance to see Del Bosque’s XI ahead of Wednesday’s deadline. With Germany also looking prone to rotation after Friday’s lineup for the game against Greece, only David Silva, Nani and Cristiano Ronaldo look the nailed-on forward options of the three semi-finalists thus far.
While Xabi Alonso’s brace, clean sheet and point for recovered balls hogged the headlines and produced a 14 point return, Jordi Alba was another stand out Fantasy performer last night. The 6.5 priced left-back provided a clean sheet, an assist and picked up an extra point for recovered balls to return a 10 point haul – he is now the top scoring player in the McDonald’s game, with 25 points accrued. The Spanish backline all benefitted from a third successive clean sheet and occupy the top four place for defenders; indeed, seven of the overall top eight are from Del Bosque’s side, an indication of their worth, despite the fact they have failed to hit top form.
Along with the Spanish defence, Sergio Busquets also comes into consideration. As we restructure our squads ahead of Wednesday’s deadline, he looks a strong mid-price option – he has accrued 16 points, just one less than Fabregas and more than both Andres Iniesta and Xavi; 10 recovered balls helped him return five points last night. Busquets also impressed creatively, providing three goalscoring opportunities – join-top with Fabregas for the Spanish. Intriguingly, Spain only has three shots on target all evening, all by Alonso, with their frontline flattering to deceive at times.
Laurent Blanc made four changes from the Sweden defeat. Anthony Reveillere and Laurent Koscielny both came in at the back – the latter replaced the suspended Philippe Mexes in the heart of defence, while Reveillere’s introduction allowed Mathieu Debuchy a role further forward on the flank in an attempt to counter the threat of Iniesta. Yohan Cabaye recovered from a thigh injury, while Florent Malouda also returned – with the likes of Samir Nasri dropping out, Blanc’s tinkering proved detrimental to his side’s attacking potential; they managed a single effort on target over the 90 minutes.
Ultimately, it was a disappointing end to a tournament that had promised so much for Les Bleus. Blanc’s side arrived at EURO 2012 on the back of a 21 match unbeaten run but, after drawing with England and seeing off Ukraine, back-to-back defeats against Sweden and Spain ended their campaign amidst rumours of dressing-room unrest and in-house squabbling. Over four matches they were woeful at both ends of the pitch; in attack, they racked up just three goals – the highly-fancied Karim Benzema failed to find the net and Samir Nasri and Franck Ribery picked up a goal and assist between them while, at the back, a single clean sheet summed up their inability to keep out opponents, with only Ukraine failing to find a way past Hugo Lloris.
