Spain’s Euro 2020 Nightmare Start Before A Ball Is Kicked & The New Bubble Of 11 Players

It never rains but it pours in Spain…At least when it comes to football competitions. In 2018 Spain were without a manager 48 hours before the tournament started, with Lopetegui being sacked. Now in 2021, Spain’s Euro 2020 start has been a nightmare, before the tournament actually begins.

This is what’s happened so far…

Sergio Busquets tested positive for COVID last Sunday, which meant that the whole of the Spanish squad for Euro 2020 has had to be in isolation since then. But Spain had 1 more warm up game to play, which was yesterday.

Spain then called up 5 senior players, who are said to be in a parallel bubble. These players are Raul Albiol, Rodrigo Moreno, Pablo Fornals, Carlos Soler and Brais Mendez. Another player, goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga was later called up too.

But these players wouldn’t play the friendly match.

Spain called up the Under 21 squad, which had just finished playing in the U21 championship, which they were eliminated at the semi final stage. They faced Lithuania last night, with 10 out of the starting 11 getting their debut for the full team.

It was an impressive display, and a good game. Spain (effectively the U21’s) beat the full Lithuania team 4-0, the biggest ever score between the two.

Luis Rubiales who is in charge at RFEF told Spanish media after the game that there would ‘probably’ be more positive cases [source]. He must have know something, as later the Spanish FA officially announced that another player in the original squad, Diego Llorente, had tested positive for COVID [source]

It was announced this morning that some players from the U21 team would train with the rest of the parallel bubble. They have added 11 players to the parallel bubble, which takes the number up to 17.

Players from the Under 21’s added to the parallel bubble are:

Alvaro Fernandez, Juan Miranda, Oscar Mingueza, Alejandro Pozo, Marc Cucurella, Brahim Diaz, Martin Zubimendi, Gonzalo Villar, Bryan Gil, Vermy Pino and Javi Puado.

What’s next?

That’s what people are currently asking. Spain play their first game of Euro 2020 against Sweden on Monday 14th June, in 5 days time. That’s not a lot of time to prepare, with so many uncertainties.

Sergio Busquets and Diego Llorente will have to train away from the squad, alone, and are in effective isolation for 10 days. That means both players will miss the opening game with Sweden as a minimum. They’ll then need to produce a negative COVID test, and of course be selected to play for the remaining game.

But they can be replaced entirely from the squad before the first game is played.

Who knows what will happen.

Will Spain be allowed to have this parallel bubble along with the original squad? Is this UEFA will allow in these circumstances?

Will any more players test positive? Will this parallel bubble replace the original squad?  Will the Spain team be ready to play?

All of these questions should be answered in the coming days.

One thing is for sure, this is another disruptive start to another campaign for the Spanish national team.