Robert Sánchez can dream of a basic place with Spain at the European Championship. The goalkeeper has competition from David de Gea and Unai Simón, but is according to it Deportes Cuatro well with national coach Luis Enrique. Sánchez is reportedly currently the favorite to become first-choice between the posts in the final round. That would be striking, since the goalkeeper of Brighton & Hove Albion has not played a single international match yet la Furia Roja.
Sánchez will get playing time anyway in Friday’s friendly against Portugal, it is expected. After that match, national coach Luis Enrique will make a new assessment. Spain will also play against Lithuania next Tuesday and will start the European Championship on Monday 14 June with a group match against Sweden. Sánchez, who comes from Brighton’s youth academy, became the Premier League club’s first goalkeeper last season. He has an English father and Spanish mother and was first called up for Spain in March. Sánchez, however, remained on the bench in the World Cup qualifiers against Greece (1-1), Georgia (1-2 win) and Kosovo (3-1 win).
In all three games, preference was given to Simón, the Athletic Club goalkeeper who has six international caps to his name. De Gea played 45 caps, but remained sidelined in the last 6 games of Spain; his last appearance for the single world champion was on October 13, 2020, when he defended goal in the 1-0 defeat to Ukraine in the Nations League. Last week, the Manchester United goalkeeper was very unhappy in the Europa League final, because he failed to stop eleven penalties in a row in the penalty shootout against Villarreal and then missed himself from eleven meters.
Where De Gea has lost credit, Luis Enrique has been increasingly impressed by Sánchez in recent months. According to the national coach, the 23-year-old is good with the ball at his feet and radiates calmness for the defense, it sounds like. There are still many question marks about the position with which Spain will start the European Championship. Luis Enrique is considering switching between a 4-3-3 formation and a 3-5-2 variant. “The options are many and many doubts will be cleared in the practice matches towards the European Championship,” writes Telecinco Tuesday evening.
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