The first friendly of the year for the Spanish team was a disappointment, a deserved defeat against Colombia in a friendly played at the Olympic Stadium in London, where West Ham usually plays. The ‘red’ presented an experimental team whose starting eleven did not include any Barcelona players and it clearly went from more to less. Colombia was better in the second half and won the game thanks to a great goal from Daniel Muñoz. The match was played without VAR, in the old style, and it was the second defeat with De la Fuente on the bench. The first was in Scotland, in an official match.
Spain will play this Tuesday at the Bernabéu against Brazil and the feeling is that De la Fuente has reserved quite a few starters for that match. The coach has made it clear that all those called up will play between the two games.
Against Colombia David Raya, Arsenal’s goalkeeper, played ahead of Unai Simón, who is presumed to be the starter for the summer Euro Cup in Germany. Dani Vivian, Athletic’s center back, made his debut in defense. The midfield had a San Sebastian flavor with Merino and Zubimendi and up top Joselu accompanied Oyarzabal and Gerard Moreno. At the beginning, they did not play regular players, like Rodri, Álvaro Morata, Dani Carvajal or Nico Williams.
In a stand with 18,000 Colombians and half of them Spaniards, the red team came out dominant against a Colombia whose Argentine coach Néstor Lorenzo left James Rodríguez on the bench. Spain had a lot of ball in the first minutes, but lacked ideas to find a way to do damage.
The first chance came after 18 minutes with a good cross from Grimaldo and an impetuous header from Vivian that went just over the goal.
The scare woke up the coffee team, which stretched its lines and on its first arrival, two minutes later, striker Mateo Cassierra scrambled in the area and fired a left foot shot that was safely blocked by Raya.
Colombia’s forward pressure turned the game from then on to halftime into a silent fight in the center of the field. There were no more chances except for poor control by goalkeeper Camilo Vargas who lost the ball and Joselu was close to taking advantage of it.
For the second, De la Fuente changed Raya (with four caps) for another debutant and another from San Sebastian, Alex Remiro. The veteran James entered Colombia, at 32 years old and with ten teams behind him.
The second act began with a very clear chance for Spain, at 48, a good close shot from Gerard Moreno and a great save from Vargas, the goalkeeper who won the starting position from David Osipina.
Colombia’s response came in the 57th minute with a long shot from James that forced Remiro to put in a good hand and deflect the ball for a corner.
The action intensified the game, which began to become a bullfight with Colombia coming out very quickly on the counterattack. After a tackle by Luis Diaz, the Liverpool player’s first spectacular shot, he had another free shot from James, but it slipped and went high.
The problem for Spain is that Luis Diaz had combusted. On the next play, in the 60th minute, he got away from Vivian with a couple of skillful dribbles and crossed to the far post where Muñoz sent the ball into the net with an acrobatic shot.
De la Fuente did not wait any longer and introduced a triple change: Baena for Oyarzabal, Morata for Joselu and Nico Williams for Gerard Moreno. Lamal immediately left through Sarabia. With Lamal and his mobility, Spain found another air.
In ’83 Pau Cubarsí came on for Laporte, the Barça player being the second youngest debutant in the history of the red team, at 17 years and two months. Spain looked for an equalizer until the end and Merino had the last chance. With Néstor Lorenzo Colombia has sixteen games and two years without losing. Spain seemed less solvent. Until now he had never lost with the red one. In the three previous games Spain had won two and drawn one.
