Can Switzerland write Spain’s new history?

Only in 22 matches had Switzerland beaten Spain once, but it showed that France is excitingly upsetting. Once against France, Switzerland has written history, now that they have faced Spain in St. Petersburg, they aim to pen a whole new chapter tonight.

In a particularly dramatic round of EURO 2020, the beating world champions France with 16 tie was spectacular.

A story that clearly favored Spain, the new-look side was renovated nearly totally under the guidance of Luis Enrique, but the action of Monday taught everyone not to take it as a matter of course, as Spain discovered when it was leading Croatia 3-1 with 5 minutes to go, but to have to have an extra time;

Spain has not been at their best this summer, drawing their first two matches against Sweden and Poland. However, they scored five goals against Slovakia in their final group match before scoring five more against Croatia, and La Roja must be taken seriously in this competition due to the other teams that have been eliminated.

Switzerland will be desperate to avoid a repetition of their last World Cup knockout encounter, a 1-0 round of 16 loss to Sweden in St Petersburg in 2018.

PLAYER TO WATCH

A year ago, a little, slender 17-year-old midfielder was attempting to keep Las Palmas from slipping into Spain’s third level by keeping them six points above the relegation zone.

Pedro Gonzalez Lopez was the name of the Canary Islands-born boy who worked for the islanders. He’s now known as Pedri to everyone.

Despite the fact that he is still only 18, and is still in the middle of his first season in senior football, that same boyish gem is one of only three players in Luis Enrique’s squad – the others being Unai Simon and Aymeric Laporte – to have played all 390 minutes of Spain’s EURO 2020 campaign thus far.

Talented adolescent tyros are nothing new. However, their emergence is usually due to something exceptional, such as strength or speed – youths in age, men in stature. Pedri is not one of them. He plays like a seasoned, well-recognized senior pro.

It’s hard to believe that someone so young, untrained, and physically frail could have such uncanny game intelligence, peripheral vision, and first touch, much alone the intrinsic bravery to always seek the ball.

Pedri began the competition as the youngest Spanish player to compete in a European Championship, and he temporarily held the record for the youngest player from any country to start a knockout game.