SPAIN'S MONSTROUS MIDFIELD WILL BUILD A BERLIN WALL... DECLAN RICE AND CO MUST TEAR IT DOWN TO LEAD ENGLAND TO EUROS GLORY, WRITES OLIVER HOLT

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Spain's midfield has helped them dominate their opponents at Euro 2024
Declan Rice and Kobbie Mainoo must stand up to their counterparts on Sunday

Tourists still mill around the base of the jagged, bomb-damaged outline of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, the best-known symbol of West Berlin in the days when the city was divided by its wall.

But a rival attraction has risen alongside the building that Berliners call the Hollow Tooth. It is a towering advertising billboard with a giant picture of the Spain midfielder Pedri in action. ‘You got this,’ the caption says.

Sadly for Pedri, Toni Kroos got him first. Pedri might have been kicked out of the tournament but the caption still says what most believe: Spain have got this. When they meet England at the Olympiastadion on Sunday night in the European Championship final, they will be clear favourites.

There are plenty of reasons for that. The six straight wins they have racked up here against sides including Italy, Germany and France. The precocious talent of 16-year-old Lamine Yamal, the vibrant pace of Nico Williams and the renaissance of Marc Cucurella.

But none of these are the most compelling reason to fret over the quality and the pedigree of the team England will meet in the German capital. There is going to be a new wall in Berlin on Sunday and it goes by the name of Rodri and Fabian Ruiz.

In the aftermath of England’s victory over the Netherlands in Dortmund, Declan Rice looked wide-eyed with excitement and anticipation about the task that lay ahead. His thoughts, he said, were dominated by the memory of the shootout defeat by Italy in the final of Euro 2020 and a determination not to experience that again.

His midfield partner, Kobbie Mainoo, was the game’s outstanding player against the Dutch. He was everywhere, forcing turnovers, moving the ball swiftly and accurately and dominating the midfield.

On Sunday, Rice and Mainoo will need to take a massive step up. They will be facing a colossus and a giant in a battle that will go a long way to deciding the outcome of England’s first-ever major final on foreign soil.

Rodri is the colossus. Attacking talents like Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jamal Musiala get more plaudits but there is a strong case for anointing Rodri the best player in the world at the moment. He is, indisputably, the best player on the planet in his position.

This is the man who is the anchor of Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Manchester City team, a player who went an incredible 74 club games without losing until he played in the side that lost to Manchester United in May’s FA Cup final.

For a long time, the man who scored City’s winner against Inter Milan in the 2023 Champions League final was unbeatable. For many opponents, the majesty of his composed presence in the heart of midfield is an insurmountable obstacle. His genius is in his embrace of simplicity and economy.

So much flows through him and around him. He is the core of the team, its foundation, its base. He is not a quarterback passer but he sets Spain’s tempo. And he is so good out of possession that when an opponent takes him on, the attack almost always collapses.

Spain’s captain, Alvaro Morata, said earlier in the tournament that Rodri should have won the Ballon d’Or last year. ‘I don’t play football for that,’ Rodri said. ‘I’m sorry. Maybe you’d like me to be more marketable.

But I just don’t understand football in those terms. It’s not something that moves me; what I chase are team awards. If we win the Euros, I wouldn’t care about the Ballon d’Or, quite honestly.’

It is a tribute to Ruiz, who has become one of the mainstays of Luis Enrique’s Paris Saint-Germain side, that he has not resided in Rodri’s shadow at these Euros.

The midfielder has performed as his equal, a master at operating in tight spaces and feeding Yamal and Williams on the wings. He was relatively unheralded coming into the tournament but not any more.

The two men complement each other beautifully. Fabian has been the epitome of elegance and authority and his goal against Croatia in the group stage, when he danced past defenders in the box before dispatching an emphatic left-foot shot into the corner, was one of the highlights of the tournament.

‘Fabian is an exceptional player, world class,’ Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said.

‘We have a brilliant generation and a great, extraordinary trajectory in football. Fabian is a representation of all those players who have been in the shadows and should get media recognition for everything they are doing.’

That recognition has flowed generously in Germany. If England are to win on Sunday, Rice and Mainoo will have to have the games of their lives and England will have to do what no other team has managed so far at this tournament and tear down the Spanish wall.

2024-07-12T21:52:25Z dg43tfdfdgfd