New look Spain take Rodri's words to heart and destroy Croatia with record-setting display

Tiki-taka is dead. Long live Tiki-taka.

Rodri told his Spain team-mates ahead of their Euro 2024 opener that style no longer mattered and winning was all that was important - and they duly battered Croatia in Berlin with the kind of physical and direct display rarely seen from them in the past 15 years.

These two are familiar foes, this being the fourth successive European Championships in which they’ve met. But this is not the Spain that Luka Modric and co remember.

In too many recent tournaments they’ve looked like a team clinging onto past glories, still trying to play the same way that brought them such great success when Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets were at their peak, putting opponents on their carousel and having their way with them. Too often, it has sent them home far earlier than expected, having failed to go past the last 16 in four of the last five major tournaments.

New head coach Luis de la Fuente wants his side to be less predictable, more direct and decisive when key moments present themselves. To aid that approach he’s promoted the unpredictable and thrilling wingers Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal - Barcelona’s 16 year-old phenom - into his attack, with another Barca sensation, Pedri, given licence to roam in midfield.

However, in the Olympiastadion, it was the old dogs and their new tricks that had put Croatia down by half time.

Alvaro Morata and Dani Carvajal celebrate

Firstly, after an opening third where both appeared happy to ease their way into the tournament, Rodri bullied his way into possession in midfield, fed Fabian Ruiz who instead of looking to keep it going wide took one touch and slipped a cutting pass through the heart of the Croatian defence to send Alvaro Morata racing clear.

Morata, now 31 and made to feel important by de la Fuente, handed the captain’s armband, raced clear and coolly slotted past Dominik Livakovic. For a player who has so often looked an ill-fit during what is now a 10-year international career, it was his 37th goal in 75 caps.

Two minutes later, their lead had been doubled.

Ruiz, the tall, languid and largely unheralded Paris Saint-Germain started the move with a superb first time diagonal ball out to Yamal, and when it was eventually worked back to him on the edge of the penalty area, he showed wonderful footwork to engineer half a yard before firing low into the bottom corner.

Fabian Ruiz of Spain celebrates after scoring his side's second goal

Croatia almost responded immediately, but Unai Simon made an excellent one handed stop to deny Marcelo Brozovic, before Lovro Major fired the follow up into the side netting from an acute angle. Josko Gvardiol fizzed an effort just wide too, as this new-look Spain showed that their new-found unpredictability extends to their game management too.

However, in injury time at the end of the first half they nabbed a third, ending the game as a contest.

Dani Carvajal, fresh from scoring in the Champions League Final, again showed his new-found poacher’s instincts, meeting Yamal’s inswinging cross and turning into the net. Never before had Spain scored three times in a first half at a Euros final.

Rodri controversially escaped a late red card when referee Michael Oliver gave a penalty but elected to only book the Manchester City man, despite him appearing to deny a goalscoring opportunity without any intention of playing the ball. Even then, Croatia couldn’t take advantage of Spain's capriciousness.

Bruno Petkovic’s penalty was saved by Simon, and while Ivan Perisic met the rebound and crossed for Petkovic to tap home into an empty net, it was disallowed for encroachment by the ex-Tottenham man.

Certainly this Spain don't and perhaps can't dominate like previous incarnations.

On this evidence, that may be a good thing.

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