The Tactical Battle Between Spanish Fake Attacker and Italian Fake Defender

201821667 Park Donggeun

There are some things in common in soccer history called “The best game of all

time”. They include multiple points with many goal scenes, a movie-like storytelling game,

or a game finished by the last minute goal. But despite not having any of these elements

at all, there is an interesting match in modern football history that has shown the highest

level of fighting tactics vs tactics. It was a match between Spain, which had a fake striker,

called “False 9”, and Italy, which fought by fake defender, called “Fore libero”, in Euro 2012

group stage. It is a game that has been recorded in history only through tactical battles. I

will compare the core of the two teams' tactics with the main players, and introduce the

fantastic tactical battles between the two teams.

Before explaining the fake striker tactics and fake defender tactics, I will introduce

the two teams' descriptions of tactics and key players. Let me start with the case of Spain.

There was no doubt that Spain national team was one of the greatest and powerful team

ever in football history. They were so strong that it has been nicknamed the “the Spanish

Armada”. It was hard to find weakness in all positions. But with Euro 2012, Del Bosque, the

manager of the Spain national team, was in trouble because the key striker David Villa was
injured and unable to play. The reason was that there was no legitimate striker to replace

David Villa. Negredo and Llorente were selected as a substitute, while the legendary striker

Fernando Torres was in the midst of a severe slump after moving from Liverpool to Chelsea.

After much thought, Del Bosque decided to use the 4-3-3 tactics, which do not include a

striker, called "False 9". False 9 is a tactic to use attacking midfielder instead of orthodox

striker. This tactic is more aggressive, requires creativity and a high level of tactical

understanding. The core of this tactic is to lure the opposing center defender. Attacking

midfielder lure the center back by switching position between the striker and the midfielder,

and the space created by false 9 will allow both wingers to penetrate. In fact, it was widely

expected that Del Bosque would take this tactic by analyzing Spain's main players at the

time. Fabregas already had an experience of being False 9 in the field in his team “FC

Barcelona”, and Xavi, Iniesta and Sergio Busquets, his teammates and legendary players at

the same time, have already proved the strength of the "False 9" tactics on their team. This

improved the team's understanding of tactics, made it easier to strengthen the teamwork

and eventually made Spain a stronger team. Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets, a strongest

combination of the midfield of all-time, known as "Three idiots", were on the team. Pique

and Ramos, the great defenders were at the back, and Iker Casillas, one of the legendary

goal keeper ever, was in the position of goalkeeper. In other words, Spain had a high name
value in every position than Italy. It seemed like no one could beat this “Spanish Armada”.

On the other hand, Italy, which was inferior to Spain, comes out with a tactic that

no one expected. All the sports media expected Italy to come up with a four-back system

(in the form of two central defender). Contrary to expectations, however, Prandelli, the

manager of the Italy national team, came out with a 3-5-2 formation, the three-back system.

The reason why people did not expected that Italy will bring the three-back system was

because Spain's expected tactics were “False 9”. As explained before, False 9 has no striker.

The three-back system was created to deal with two strikers, the two-top tactics. This is

because they can defend more easily by gaining numerical superiority against two attackers

in the defensive situation. But as one-top formation with one striker gradually became

popular, the three-back system gradually loses ground in football tactics. Deploying three

defenders to prevent one striker is a waste of players. The fact that Spain includes no

striker in their tactics, Prandelli's decision has raised doubts among people, as deploying

three center backs was expected to bring considerable numerical waste. But there was a

reason for this decision by Prandelli. False 9's key point is to lure one of the center backs

to create space to penetrate. But this three-back defending system would make it easier

to defend, because the other two defenders are remaining behind even one center back

is already getting out of his position. Also, Italy's two wingers played as a side defender in
defense and took the form of a five-back system, which was enough to show the strong

defend tactics, “The Catenaccio”.

But it was certainly a waste to deploy three defenders against a tactic with no

striker. To solve it, Prandelli used the "Fore Libero" tactic, a tactic that uses a fake defender,

as opposed to Spain’s fake attacker. Daniele de Rossi took the role, originally a midfielder

in his club team and had a fairly accurate passing ability. At that time, Spain's central

combination was the strongest ever, consisting of Xavi, Alonso and Busquets, and the Italy’s

Marchisio, Mota and Pirlo combination was relatively inferior, so it was virtually impossible

to gain the upper hand in the midfield. So Italy gave Spain the upper hand, and as soon

as they took over the ball, they passes directly to Pirlo, the greatest passer of Italy, and

then made a long pass to the attackers who tries to penetrate to the side of the field. In

fact, 80 percent of Italy's attack routes were the both side of the field, not the center as

usual. However, it has already been proven through Park Ji-sung that if mark Pirlo

intensively, this type of attack cannot be attempted. Spain immediately begins to

concentrate on marking Pirlo. In this situation, the power of the fake defender tactic shows

the strength of it. When the other players takes the ball from Spain, he overlap into a

midfield position, and makes the form of “Double Volante” (two defensive rear playmakers).

When a Pirlo was unable to pass due to the intensive marking, suddenly a De Rossi appears
somewhere and tried to make a long pass, and it was difficult for Spain to mark two players

intensively at the same time. Such tactics were possible because De Rossi was originally a

midfielder with a great passing ability and had an excellent defense skills as a defensive

midfielder. De Rossi had succeeded 13 long passes, and it was the highest figure between

the two teams. Italy had an apparently inferior squad to Spain. But Prandelli's brilliant

tactics worked against ‘the Spanish Armada’, and Italy slowly begins to take the lead in the

game.

Spain was in trouble because of these new Italian tactics. To make matters worse,

Prandelli orders striker Balotelli an active midfield defense role in order to fight Spain's

powerful midfield to the fullest. Balotelli succeeded one tackle and three intercepts in 56

minutes. Compared to Italy's central defenders, who played 90 minutes, had an average of

5.3 intercepts, this was indeed a great record and helped Italy avoid losing the midfield

battle. Spain ended the first half without making any chances to score a goal. With Whistle

announcing the second half, Italy pulled out the first replacement card. Prandelli put Di

Natale on behalf of Balotelli, who has a good scoring ability, and it worked right away. Di

Natale scored three minutes after entering the field. However, Spain fought back to match

the modifier of "the best team ever." They frequently attempted attacks through Iniesta

and Jordi Alba on the left side who has showed the peak form. David Silva, the right winger,
showed a tactical pattern of moving to the left to maximize left-side attack. It also

threatened Italy by using these tactics to lure the entire Italian defense to the left and

passes to Arbeloa, a right side defender. Due to the Italy’s defenders were concentrated

on the left side of the field, there was an empty space on the right side and Arbeloa tried

to penetrate into it. A proper position-switching is bound to create confusion for opposing

defenders, and David Silva and Fabregas' switching tactics are brilliantly successful, with

Spain scoring the equalizer right away. After scoring a goal, Spain pulls out a replacement

card this time. Spain put Jesus Navas in place of David Silva. As Italy's thorough tactical

preparedness prevented False 9 tactics from working, Spain deployed a classic winger that

showed a simple, linear movement to use the tactic of crossing after a side breakthrough,

the easiest tactic to break down the dense defense. Also, the defense line of the Italy has

risen as Italy tries to attack more. Spain deploys a great line breaker, Fernando Torres, to

take advantages from this points. The tactical change offers Spain several chances to

counterattack, but Torres' showed a poor goal-scoring ability and the match ended with a

score of one to one.

Although it ended with a cliche score of 1-1, the game has been recorded as a

long-lost landmark in football history, and also changed the history of football in the future.

The match made Italy to completed the "Catenaccio" tactic, and signaled the end of the
False 9 tactical era. The showdown between a fake attacker and a fake defender was

enough to create tension and interest for the beholder. What both teams have in common

is that they have deployed a player with the title “fake”. But the "fake" players showed cool

performances in different ways, completing the team's tactics. Eventually, the two teams

also performed well on the tournament stage, and were destined to face off again in the

final. Spain eventually win the title, but both team showed a great form. Spain vs Italy

tactic battle at the group stage of Euro 2012, this is the best match ever in history of

football.