SPAIN 3-3 BRAZIL | TACTICAL ANALYSIS: ENDRICK, LAMINE YAMAL…

Let’s analyze the draw between Spain and Brazil in the friendly played at the Santiago Bernabéu. We started seeing how Spain pressed very high, man marking all over the pitch, with Dani Olmo being fundamental, he teamed up with Morata in the first line. Spain with a good press, not alowwing the player with his back to run, and being aggressive when the ball reached the attacking players, blocking passing lanes, overloading those areas, having Brazil many problems to progress.

Exactly the same counterpressing, not allowing to turn, having numerical superiority to recover the ball quick.

In possession, Spain played with a 4-3-3 with Dani Olmo, in principle, being a midfielder but he pushed up teaming with Morata being a 4-2-3-1 and even a 4-4-2 in many plays, Dani Olmo being the most advanced footballer in some plays. Wingers giving width, we see here Nico Williams open, who played a great game.

Spain tried to isolate him to play 1vs1 and having a lot of players inside the box.

In this one, we see Morata receiving and he quickly throws a long ball to the other side for the isolated player. The one who did it best was Rodrigo, who understood at all times what was the best decision for his team.

In this play with Lamine who is freed on the opposite side, turning the play to him getting the penalty for the first goal.

In the second goal, Lamine Yamal with the ball and Dani Olmo attacking the space, being the most advanced player in Spain, since Morata is open on the wing.

When Brazil had the ball we could see that even Spain made a good press, sometimes Spain made a mistake with Nico Williams too high, allowing Brazil to find the free man.

Here again, Nico Williams who doesn’t know how high he has to be, Spain’s defensive line is narrow, so Brazil could progress with a long ball, but in the first half Brazil had a lot of problems dominating possession.

What we did see in the first half was a clear weakness in Spain’s transitions when the defenders had to control the Brazilian attackers, here Vinicius receiving free.

To close the first half we can see this play in which Brazil scored its first goal, a bad pass from Unai Simón to Fabián that Rodrygo intercepted, scoring Brazil.

After the break, Endrick came on being very important, Spain with the same problem in the transitions, not controlling the forwards, being less intense in the press than in the first half. In Brazil’s second goal, a set piece, Endrick with a great move to get away from Dani Olmo who is not chasing him and Endrick scores with a volley.

Here we can see what we mentioned before in Brazil’s build-up, poor positioning by Spain, not so aggressive, something that already happened to them in the match against Colombia, suffering in the second half, having problems to control the game. Brazil did a better job in the second half, better press, more pace and intensity, generating problems when Spain tryed to play from the back.

Here we can see how when the ball reached Spain’s right wing in the second half, Brazil had numerical superiority, with Lamine Yamal being the only player to find an advantage in that area for the third goal.

And lastly here a great counterpress by Brazil in the play in which they got the penalty to score the sixth and last goal of the game.

Better game for Spain than against Colombia, and Brazil is still looking for a good version to try to be one of the candidates for the Copa América this year.