{"id":3795,"date":"2024-07-13T21:05:32","date_gmt":"2024-07-13T21:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/spanish-fans-confident-in-beating-england\/"},"modified":"2024-07-13T21:05:32","modified_gmt":"2024-07-13T21:05:32","slug":"spanish-fans-confident-in-beating-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/spanish-fans-confident-in-beating-england\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish fans confident in beating England"},"content":{"rendered":"


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By\u00a0Guy Hedgecoe,\u00a0<\/span>BBC News, in Madrid<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"ReutersReuters<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Spanish fans are revelling in their Euros glory to date<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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“This undoubtedly surprises you more than it surprises us,” Spain\u2019s manager Luis de la Fuente told his country\u2019s journalists.<\/p>\n

His team had just beaten France<\/a> in the European Championship semi-finals, setting up a showdown with England in Sunday\u2019s final.<\/p>\n

And surprise – of the pleasant kind – is perhaps the best word to describe what many Spanish fans have been feeling throughout this tournament.<\/p>\n

Expectation was low on Spain’s sun-kissed streets as the Euros got underway, but that has quickly become national jubilation, helping to bring this much-divided country together.<\/p>\n

Quite a difference to the trials and tribulations<\/a> of Three Lions supporters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Like many Spanish fans, Jorge Gallego’s confidence has been growing<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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“At first my friends and myself thought that the players selected were a very personal choice of the coach and didn\u2019t represent the opinion of most Spaniards,” said Jorge Gallego, a Spain fan in Madrid.<\/p>\n

“We didn\u2019t expect to reach the final but throughout the tournament we started to realise that we could go far.”<\/p>\n

While an estimated 11,500 Spanish fans have travelled to Berlin for the final<\/a>, back home giant screens are being installed in parks, sports centres and squares on which to watch it.<\/p>\n

Here in Madrid, local authorities have said that, if Spain wins, victory celebrations will take place around the Plaza de Cibeles in the capital\u2019s centre.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the players are being lauded, among them defender Marc Cucurella, who has become a folk hero thanks to his big hair and an online song about him which has gone viral.<\/p>\n

The lyrics feature paella and beer – it’s a chant often heard in the stands of his league club, Chelsea.<\/p>\n

The buoyant atmosphere surrounding the football<\/a> contrasts with Spain\u2019s rancorous and often toxic politics, where the left-wing government and right-wing opposition seldom agree on anything.<\/p>\n

The football team provides a rare rallying point<\/a>. Parties and politicians have celebrated not just the results but the emergence of players, like Lamine Yamal, who turned 17 on Saturday and has turned out to be the star.<\/p>\n

This team also represents Spain\u2019s multi-cultural reality. Yamal\u2019s father is Moroccan and his mother is from Equatorial Guinea, while Nico Williams\u2019s Ghanaian parents reached Spain after travelling across the Sahara Desert and scaling a fence that surrounds the enclave of Melilla.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Fearless & magical’ Yamal is ‘already world class’<\/figcaption><\/p>\n
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Yamal has underlined his humble origins, holding his fingers up after scoring to show the postcode 304, the working-class, multi-cultural district of the Catalan town of Matar\u00f3 where he grew up.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a place that a member of the far-right Vox party, Manuel Gavira, once described as a “multi-cultural dung heap”. <\/p>\n

But the overwhelming sensation is that Spaniards are embracing their team, both for its performances and what it represents.<\/p>\n

El Peri\u00f3dico newspaper said “a young Spain, sassy and reinvigorated, has become the mirror for a country which has changed and is multi-racial and diverse”.<\/p>\n

Even King Felipe joined in the plaudits, saying that the men\u2019s team, radiated “excitement, joy and security”, while praising the “sparkle” of Yamal.<\/p>\n

It’s easy to forget that Yamal’s selection raised eyebrows and led to accusations that De la Fuente – a relatively junior coach who had never worked with a top-flight club – did not have the experience to succeed. <\/p>\n

On the face of it, the team was a far cry from the star-studded side that conquered two European titles and the World Cup between 2008-2012.<\/p>\n

Now, there is a feeling that the national team has returned to the elite, restoring the self-esteem of Spanish fans<\/a> in the process.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Results are an obvious reason for the renewed belief. It has six wins out of six \u2013 a first for any team in the Euros \u2013 against opponents that included not just Didier Deschamps\u2019s France, but also hosts Germany and Euro 2020 champions Italy.<\/p>\n

The style of those victories has also been crucial. Gone is the close-passing, possession-obsessed “tiki-taka” play which brought Spain so much success in the past. Instead, Spain is playing more directly, with two of its emerging stars, Williams and Yamal, wreaking havoc down the wings.<\/p>\n

The result is a less controlled and more thrilling style than in the past.<\/p>\n

Spanish fans, who abhor dull football, have bought into it.<\/p>\n

“Spain is going to win, without a doubt,” said Luis Garc\u00eda, a Venezuelan migrant who supports Spain.<\/p>\n

“They\u2019ve shown that they are the best team. It\u2019s amazing that the team has improved so much with this younger generation of players and that our hopes rest on these kids.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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7 hours ago By\u00a0Guy Hedgecoe,\u00a0BBC News, in Madrid Reuters Spanish fans are revelling in their Euros glory to date “This undoubtedly surprises you more than it surprises us,” Spain\u2019s manager Luis de la Fuente told his country\u2019s journalists. His team had just beaten France in the European Championship semi-finals, setting up a showdown with England […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3797,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3795\/revisions\/3797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}