The Spanish team plays against Switzerland (7h La1). After the defeat against Japan, only a victory can lead the red to overcome a border that has never crossed before, that of the quarterfinals of a World Cup. With Jorge Vilda on the bench, Spain has played two Euro Cups (2017 and 2022) and one World Cup (2019), surpassing the group stage, but always falling in the first knockout round.
Jorge Vilda is also at stake. The coach arrives at the World Cup highly questioned about his ability to lead this team. The conflict with ‘the 15’ has taken its toll and players like Mapi León or Patri Guijarro are not in New Zealand. A new elimination in the round of 16 could end up dynamiting everything and causing the dismissal of the coach, although in the previous one he did not want to assess whether he feels that this game could be decisive for his future: “I am focused on the game and it is not the time to think about it,” he said. Before, he regretted the “negativity” he perceived and tried to harangue from the press room: “I notice a little bit of negativity… come on Spain, come on team, let’s all win the game that surely we are all happy to win the game ”.
The Spanish delegation, led by Jorge Vilda, landed this Friday morning in Auckland, coming from Wellington. After a brief walk through Eden Park to recognize the stadium that will host the match against Switzerland, with all the tickets sold out, the red trained at the Waitakere stadium. A common measure during the tournament, since FIFA is prohibited from training in the stadium of the match to protect the grass as much as possible from the large number of matches that they must host in such a short period of time.
Spain trained with the 22 players available. Ivana Andrés did not, who has not yet recovered from her problems in the soleus. Her place next to Irene Paredes will be occupied, in all probability, by Laia Codina. Vilda’s first option, Rocío Gálvez, did not work out against Japan and everything indicates that this will be one of the novelties in the eleven. The other could be the entry of Athenea del Castillo from the right, with a more favorable profile against Switzerland than that of Salma Paralluelo.
Switzerland will not be Japan. The world number 20, she qualified for her second World Cup in the playoffs, beating Wales. She is the weakest group leader of all, with two draws and a single win (0-2 against the Philippines), but she also has her strengths and wants to exploit them in the best form of Swiss women’s football, which is preparing to host Eurocup next year. It is one of the only three teams to reach the round of 16 with a clean sheet. A very strong rival in ball disputes and who risks just enough. Like Japan, they don’t suffer if they don’t have possession either, but they don’t have as much quality as the Japanese to go on the counter.
With the blaugrana Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic contributing character and fight from the position of ‘9’ and with proven footballers in important teams like Ramona Bachmann (PSG), Lia Wälti (Arsenal) or Alisha Lehmann (Aston Villa), they will try to put in trouble to a Spain that arrives touched after conceding 4 goals against Japan. “Spain is a very strong team, but against Japan they have not changed the game much and that has taught us many weaknesses that we have analyzed very intensively”, recognized Inka Grings. Two-time European champion with Germany in her time as a footballer and now As head of the Swiss team, she is very clear about what she has to do: “We want to break the game of the Spanish team and try to limit the football of these strong players.”
Spain or Switzerland. One of the two will achieve a historic feat and will sneak into the quarterfinals, where they will meet the winner of the duel between the Netherlands and South Africa, one of the revelations of the World Cup.
