Although Uefa seem content to turn serious football matches into children's parties, the scale of France's task against Spain was all too apparent
This is a terrific tournament, impeccably organised and held in a variety of excellent stadiums, but it was sad to see so many empty seats in the Donbass Arena last night for a quarter-final between two of the three sides to have held the world and European championships simultaneously, one of them the current holders of both titles.
A corner of the stadium was packed by a couple of thousand authentic visitors from Iberia, but many of those wearing Spanish shirts scattered elsewhere in the stadium turned out to be Ukrainian, as were some of the very much smaller number wearing the blue of France. It was slightly reminiscent of that fateful and slightly surreal evening in Shizuoka 10 years ago when a stadium evenly distributed between the white of England and the yellow of Brazil turned out to be 90 per cent Japanese.
There were plenty of Ukraine shirts, too, last night, as might be expected, but there were also the occasional chants of "Ross-i-ya!" that expressed the true allegiance of many of those who had turned up to watch a match of great significance to both contestants.
More annoying was the Mexican wave that went round the stadium before the half-hour mark, and was sustained for five long minutes. This is the first major football tournament in which the wave, rather than being reserved for the interval, has been a regular feature of the playing time itself. A regrettable phenomenon, it is perhaps a consequence of Uefa's insistence on dressing up each match as a children's party, with pre-match cheerleaders and a countdown to the kick-off that might have come from Crackerjack.
Why the governing body would want to turn big and serious football matches into funfairs is anybody's guess, although no doubt some dimwit in the marketing department would have had something to do with it. But any spectator who would participate in a Mexican wave during a match between two sides of such history and quality is insulting to the players and does not deserve their ticket.
The French had a special reason for wanting success on Saturday night. They were the last team to beat Spain at a major tournament – in the first knockout round of the 2006 World Cup – when Raymond Domenech's side beat the team of Luis Aragonés 3-1 in Hanover and Zinedine Zidane gave one of the last great performances of his career, adding a bruise to the one he inflicted on the same opponents in the quarter-final of Euro 2000 in Bruges.
Much has happened to both since the unbroken success for one, a series of catastrophes and humiliations for the other, culminating for France in the disastrously mutinous goings-on in South Africa two years ago. Laurent Blanc's success in rebuilding a house left in ruins by Domenech has been marked by a 23-match unbeaten run – the second longest in the history of Les Bleus – which came to an end last week with a defeat by Sweden in their final Group D match, a relatively insignificant reverse yet one that was apparently enough to set off a new conflagration in the dressing room.
The man said to have been the most vocal was Alou Diarra, the strong holding midfield player from Marseille. Diarra had started all three group matches but it may have been significant that he was left out last night, along with Samir Nasri, as Blanc reconfigured his side to meet the threat of Spain's troupe of all-jinking, all-passing inside forwards.
For Spain, their two principal instigators, Xabi Alonso and Xavi Hernández, found their length straight away, both driving long diagonal balls to the left for David Silva to attack Gaël Clichy. The next effort, from Alonso, was a straighter ball aimed at Cesc Fábregas, who collided with Clichy and tumbled in the penalty area but was correctly refused a penalty. France counterattacked briskly in the early stages, but once Spain had established the rhythm of their relentless passing, the steam went out of Blanc's team.
Blanc's gambit of doubling up at right back, with Mathieu Debuchy pushed ahead of Anthony Réveillère in an attempt to limit the scope for Andrés Iniesta, was exposed by the opening goal. The little Spaniard slipped a pass inside Debuchy, encouraging the overlapping Jordi Alba to make for the byline and clip over a cross that allowed the unmarked Xabi Alonso to dive into his header as if in slow motion.
Ten minutes later Yohan Cabaye's sensational 25-yard free-kick, after Sergio Ramos had blocked Karim Benzema's promising run, deserved to provide an equaliser. Unfortunately for the Newcastle United midfielder, no goalkeeper has ever bettered Iker Casillas in the art of flying across the goalmouth to tip a fierce shot around the angle. Yet Blanc's team looked half-mesmerised by Spain's patterns. They did not really wake up until an hour had gone, when Franck Ribéry came to life and started driving for the byline, turning in crosses that were cleared with difficulty. At this point Spain appeared to have switched off, although they were enlivened by the arrival of the busy Pedro Rodríguez, who removed a little of the languour from their approach. When Ribéry snuffed out a promising move by running straight into his team mate Réveillère, the scale of France's task was all too apparent. Read More
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