This old Iberian rivalry took a delicious twist on the eve of the World Cup after the Julen Lopetegui dismissal cast a shadow over Spain’s entire campaign.
Put Cristiano Ronaldo, his Real Madrid team-mates and Barcelona rivals on the same pitch, with a dash of Pepe, and fireworks may fly.
Will it result in goals? We’ve picked apart some of the most interesting talking points.
Have-a-go Hierro
Can you hear the drums, Fernando? That’ll be the sound of your heartbeat. Mere moments after Julen Lopetegui been booted out of camp for his tryst with Real, a former player whom many Madridistas are still besotted with ascended to the hotseat.
The job could have gone to Albert Celades – the current Under-21 manager – yet it feels like the Spanish federation have employed the best firefighter, if not the best coach, to rescue a campaign that is in danger of being razed to the ground before it even starts.
Hierro, Spain’s answer to Franz Beckenbauer in his pomp, is a totem that a disillusioned Spanish squad can rally around.
There was no point bringing in a Vicente del Bosque or a Luis Enrique on a temporary basis – the tactical implementation had been done far, far in advance of the coming month.
Hierro would do well to call up his old Real chum Zinedine Zidane. In an irony overload the 50-year-old became Carlo Ancelotti’s assistant when Zidane left to coach Madrid’s Castilla side in 2016. Hierro then had a brief stint at Oviedo before his reappointment as Spain’s sporting director last year.
Zidane motivated the Madrid’s Spain contingent to almost impossible heights over the last three years. You better hope those same stars shine bright for you, Fernando.
Ronaldo can rely on both Silva and Guedes
Andre Silva had scored more goals for Portugal by October than he’d muster for Serie A all season.
On one hand that illustrates how rotten he was in his debut season for AC Milan, and on the other that he’s really rather good when donning his national team’s colours.
Playing alongside Ronaldo, or perhaps at best in the great man’s shadow, Silva has fed well on the bits and pieces left to him from Portugal’s effective, if predictable, play out wide. The 22-year-old has proven the antidote to the country’s epidemic of average-strikers-who-aren’t-called-Ronaldo (though Eder proved okay for that one game in Paris).
There’s a wrinkle in Silva’s World Cup hopes, however, and it goes by the name of Goncalo Guedes. The 21-year-old has sent lightning bolts down on La Mestalla with his wonderful wing play for Valencia on loan from PSG yet intriguingly Portugal coach Fernando Santos, set on playing Ricardo Quaresma and Bernardo on the wings, has played him up top in recent friendlies.
Two goals in the 3-0 win over Algeria has Silva pulling nervously at his collar. Chances are that the Milan misfit, with his superior size and tactical awareness through the centre as a former midfielder, will keep his place in a rigid 4-4-2. Santos will take Guedes over Eder on the bench any day, though.
Attritional battle of Iberia
Portugal and Spain have not met on a football battleground for six years yet, even in a three-game cluster when La Roja were at the peak of powers, this clash was never a one-sided affair.
At the World Cup in 2012, the Portuguese missed a hatful of first-half chances with Hugo Almeida (put him in the average strikers bracket) the main culprit. A David Villa goal was the only the difference in the quarter-final.
A few months later Portugal thumped Spain 4-0 in a friendly, a not-so-average Helder Postiga that night rattling in twice, and most recently at Euro 2012 Spain needed penalties before going onto defend their crown.
Undoubtedly, then, Spain have found the going more tough against Portugal and it’s little wonder with the two nations only divided by a border.
It’s not hard to imagine a situation in which Portugal, sat deep to mask their deficiencies at the back and employing a meticulous defensive structure, could rattle a Spanish attack that may be thinking a nanosecond too slow given the tumultuous events of the past few days.
This’ll be an intriguing game – but likely in the absence of many goals.
