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Villa he score in Euro 2008 again?

June 14th, 2008 •  Permalink 

It will come of no surprise to anyone who has been closely following this game, and the swathe of attacks Spain have had, as Sweden have been content to soak up the pressure - that Spain have been absolutely dominating possession in this second half. But still they await the second goal - an interesting conundrum when one considers how dominantly they pushed aside Russia, with a whole hatful of well-worked goals that came from far less possession.

But is this due to nerves - or perhaps Spain’s legendary ability to throw it all away during tournaments kicking in even earlier than normal… We’ve been analysing the heat-map, and we think we might have found the answer. And it all lies with last week’s hat-trick hero David Villa. You might remember that in the 4-1 demolition of Russia, his intricate play on the edge of the box, and top of midfield - led to some incredible inter-woven passes, and goals galore.

This time we feel it’s a little different, and Villa seems content to hang around in the opposition’s penalty area, and wait for the ball to come to him, ensuring less free space amongst the Swedish defence, and nowhere to perform his undeniably devastating skills.

Take a look at this heat map, powered by the CPI - and see if you agree….

David Villa vs Sweden

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