Uruguay 0-1 Spain: La Roja top World Cup group as Bielsa’s side are eliminated | OneFootball

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Spain secured top spot in World Cup Group H with a hard-fought victory over Uruguay, condemning Marcelo Bielsa’s side to a group-stage exit and setting up a Round of 32 clash with either Austria or Algeria.

Alex Baena’s first-half strike proved the difference in Guadalajara, with the midfielder capitalising on a costly Fernando Muslera error to hand La Roja all three points.

Uruguay pushed for an equaliser after the break, but Luis de la Fuente’s side stood firm to keep a third clean sheet of the tournament and set up a round of 32 tie with either Austria or Algeria.

As it happened

Spain started quickly, winning the ball high inside the Uruguayan half in the opening minute, with Lamine Yamal looking to carry the ball forward into the empty space, but Uruguay recovered well to make sure nothing came of the chance. It was however, an early warning shot for Marcelo Bielsa’s side that they could not afford too many more errors like that.

Both teams were proving to be threats on the break, creating decent opportunities in the final third after winning the ball back, but both failed to get clean shots away in the first half an hour.

But after a cagey opening, Spain found a breakthrough out of nothing. The ball was kept alive well by Mikel Merino and Marcos Llorente, with the former picking out Alex Baena, who squeezed an effort past Fernando Muslera. The Uruguayan shot-stopper allowed the ball to go through his gloves and trickle into the corner – a huge mistake and a costly one for the South American side.

Uruguay had a good chance just before the break as Maximiliano Araujo whipped a low cross into the path of Darwin Nunez, but Aymeric Laporte got back in the nick of time to get a touch on the ball before the former Liverpool striker could level the game.

As the teams re-emerged after half-time, Uruguay made an intriguing change, with Marcelo Bielsa opting for a change of goalkeeper, after Muslera’s mistake for the Spain goal, with Sergio Rochet coming on to replace the veteran number one.

Ten minutes into the second half, and again Bielsa opted for a controversial substitution, electing to take off captain and key man Federico Valverde of Real Madrid.

As Uruguay started to throw more players forward in search of the goals needed to keep their tournament alive, Spain, and particularly Lamine Yamal, started to get more space and very nearly made the South Americans pay at the first opportunity. Yamal did well to tee up substitute Dani Olmo, but the Barcelona midfielder got his effort all wrong and failed to test the substitute goalkeeper.

Spain passed up a huge opportunity to wrap up the game after 86 minutes, as Ferran Torres found himself through on goal after some nice play. The Barcelona forward looked set to slot past the goalkeeper, but fired his shot high clipping the top of the bar on the way over.

The game ended in an ugly way for Uruguay, with Agustin Canobbio being shown a straight red card after a bad challenge. He had been warned previously on numerous occasions by the referee but failed to keep his discipline.

Spain held on for a narrow victory to top Group H, with Uruguay finishing third and crashing out of the World Cup, while Cape Verde progressed in their place.

Spain analysis: Job done for de la Fuente

Spain were far from their fluid best as we saw in the previous game against Saudi Arabia. They struggled to really create anything from their sustained pressure, with almost all of the opportunities coming in transitional situations after winning the ball back and breaking quickly.

While they did manage to get over the line, they were uncharacteristically sloppy at times all over the pitch, and if Uruguay were more composed or had more quality, it could have been a different story. They were unable to show the patterns of play in the final third that we associate with a Spanish team, but ultimately had enough quality to overcome a poor Uruguay team.

Interestingly, they did seem to show more discipline in the way they attacked, clearly being aware of the threat Uruguay would possess on the break.

While in the opening two group games, the Spanish fullbacks, in particular Marc Cucurella, have been deployed high in an attempt to create overloads in attack and often proving to be a key aspect of the way Spain create chances.

But against Uruguay, Luis de la Fuente seemingly opted for a more cautious approach, with both Cucurella and Marcos Llorente staying much further back during attacks, with the attacking responsibility being given to the forwards instead.

The more ‘defensive’ approach clearly worked, with Uruguay only generating 0.20 xg over the course of the game, despite knowing they needed to get something out of the game if they wanted any chance of remaining in the World Cup.

Perhaps this gameplan did negatively impact the potency of the Spanish forward line, but with a third clean sheet of the tournament, and top spot in the group secured, they will have no complaints.

Spain will play one of Austria or Algeria in the round of 32 tie at the SoFi stadium in Los Angeles on Thursday night.