Spain – Serbia | Baena shines and Víctor Muñoz makes his big debut

Baena shows that he is prepared to be a starter

Álex Baena did not arrive at a good time to this selection call. The midfielder has only added 100 minutes in Atlético de Madrid’s last five games. His weight in his team has been reduced, but this circumstance has not changed Luis de la Fuente’s idea of ​​him. The coach considers him an important piece in La Roja and, barring injury, he seems to be a fixture on the World Cup roster.

The coach once again gave Baena confidence, initially placing him lying on the left in a very recognizable alignment. Although it has different characteristics than Williams, The man from Almeria has nominated himself as the replacement of the extreme in case he does not arrive in conditions at the World Cup event. The ’15’ has been a starter in that position in three of La Roja’s last four games and has shown that he is prepared for the challenge.

Baena played a very complete game. His freedom of movement, associative capacity and technical quality fits the La Roja style like a glove. The Andalusian demonstrated this by participating in Oyarzabal’s first goal without touching the ball. Fermín assisted, Baena intelligently let it pass and the leather came to ’21’, which he defined wonderfully.

The one from Roquetas de Mar too he looked for his goal and tried his luck with two shots that narrowly missed. Besides, He was very precise in the pass (92.9% correct) and he was the third Spanish player with the most passes in the last third of the field (23).

Víctor Muñoz breaks down the door in his debut

There was a lot of expectation the premiere of Víctor Muñoz with the Spanish team. His exceptional season at Osasuna has not gone unnoticed and this March he has the opportunity to make his senior debut. His growth in these months has been enormous and even more so considering that he is competing his first season in the First Division. Last year he played in the First Federation, the third category of our football.

Luis de la Fuente gave him half an hour in his debut. He didn’t need anything else. The winger revolutionized a match that seemed dull, with Serbia at the mercy of a Spain that did not step on the accelerator too much. Victor came in with a couple more gears, appearing everywhere on the front of the attack. He scored a goal and made two plays that could have also ended up in the net.

Víctor only needed ten minutes to leave his mark on Spain’s victory. It was the 72nd minute when Dani Olmo put a ball into space for Ferran. The Valencian pulled out a fantastic assist with his heel out of his hat to enable the Catalan, who defined with great class with the outside to score 3-0.

Two minutes later, ’25’ and ‘7’ exchanged roles. Muñoz assisted and Torres finishedbut ran into Milinkovic-Savic. The Osasuna player was a constant torment for the Serbian defense and left another great play on the wing that almost ended in a goal for Dani Olmo.

His great performance makes it clear that The jump to the national team has not been great and that he has a chance to be in the World Cup. “It would be a dreambut I focus on the day to day, enjoying this process and if it has to come, it will surely be good,” he declared to the TVE microphones at the end of the meeting. “De la Fuente told me to be calm, that I didn’t have to prove anything, that I had to play as I know how,” he added.

The coach and his teammates have shown that they have confidence in him, even though he is a newcomer. Rodri Hernández also had good words for Víctor. “There are not many players with that profile in the world, you’ll see”declared the captain of the team.