Spain in the final in 4231, backs Laporte, Normand, Cucurella, Carvajal, FabianLuiz back, Rodri, attack Olmo midfielder, wings Williams, Yamal, striker Morata
Backs Stones, England out of 343, Walker, Guéhi, both wingbacks Saka, LukeShaw, Rice back, Mainoo, Foden, forward line, Bellingham, HarryKane
(Pre-emptive linking)
Spain remain largely unchanged, while England's formation is of a changing nature. As a left back, LukeShaw went further. Right back Saka is actually the winger involved in the attack, while Bellingham was put forward on the left in the second half of the semi-final. This game is placed on the left front, basically away from the attacking midfield and closer to the forwards.
The first half of the game started off very tentative for the first two teams. Basically the fullbacks stood in defensive positions and didn't advance. England, obviously, even backed off their wingers just to be very wary of Spain's two wingers, and Spain mostly passed the ball to Williams to try and break down England's wingers while England's Saka had dropped out of the defense, which made it very difficult for Williams to keep facing more than two men in a combined defense.
Spain's defense against England was also very tight. Although England didn't attack many times, you could see that as soon as England pushed forward, all three Spanish midfielders retreated into the box and all the defenders retreated into the box as well. England's use of Walker's pass was also blocked. As Spain attacked, either Williams or Yamal, they would face a combined defensive position of almost three England players that stayed sticky throughout the first half. England's defense was really good. Spain never had a chance to play.
Spain started to change tactics after 35 minutes of the first half when Williams moved to the right wing and started to link up with Yamal on the break. This is the way the last semi-final was played. The two strongest wingers were put on the same side to apply pressure. On the other hand, Cucurella moved up to play as a left winger to keep the pressure on. It's a very powerful offense for a reason, but it seems England has studied it. They still guarded with a three-man joint defense system. In fact, Spain made several attempts in the first half, including a short central pass.
Just before the end of the first half Bellingham went past the opposition on the left and then put a ground ball into the 18 yard box, HarryKane sprinted up to get the ball, Rodri got in the way and then he crashed into Laporte and that was how the first half ended, to no one's surprise at the start of the second half Spain replaced Rodri and brought on substitute Zubimendi, which meant Rodri had been injured on the last play of the first half and couldn't play any more, Spain were originally quite disadvantaged in the second half.
England actually tried to attack in the opening stages of the second half, but didn't expect Spain to take advantage of the opportunity to break through on the counterattack right away. On just 46 minutes, Fabian Luiz played a ball from midfield to the right where Carvajal was able to get a foot on the ball and knock it into half-space, where Yamal was able to take over. He would have run over the top, but Yamal showed a high level of ball handling and physical coordination. Instead of braking for the ball, he just turns 180 degrees.
