Combining Well With Koke And Busquets, Gavi Hopes For The Future Of The Spanish And Barcelona National Teams
JAKARTA - Luis Enrique may have surprised many when he started Gavi in Spain's match against Italy in the UEFA Nations League semifinals on Thursday morning. However, the young Barcelona player showed a mature performance at the San Siro to help La Roja to a 2-1 victory.
Just 17 years and 62 days old, Gavi became the youngest debutant in the history of the Spanish national team when he overtook Angel Zubieta, who made his La Roja debut in 1936 at the age of 17 years and 284 days.
Despite his young age, Gavi did not hesitate to ask for the ball throughout the game and blended well with the experienced duo of Koke and Sergio Busquets.
The proof of his quality was in the 13th minute, when Federico Chiesa passed Marcos Alonso and Koke, but Gavi made a timely tackle to prevent the Juventus forward from creating danger in front of Unai Simon's goal.
Gavi also sometimes does the dirty work, as he fearlessly manages to read the Italian game well. He retreated in defense when Pau Torres made a mistake, corrected Koke's error in the middle third and was clever enough to intercept a cleverly picked Italian set-piece.
Luis Enrique gave Gavi 82 minutes of playing time before replacing him with Sergi Roberto late in the game.
Spain itself won through two goals from Ferran Torres and qualified for the final of the UEFA Nations League. Roberto Mancini's home side had already conceded two goals in the first half and were down to 10 men after Leonardo Bonucci was shown a second yellow card.
Meanwhile, the Gli Azzurri goal was scored by Lorenzo Pellegrini in the second half.