Austria boss outlines plan to stop Lamine Yamal ahead of Spain clash at World Cup 2026
Austria boss Ralf Rangnick says his team want to make sure Lamine Yamal sees as little of the ball as possible during Thursday’s last 32 clash with Spain at World Cup 2026.
Yamal is expected to start the match for Luis de la Fuente’s side after recovering from his hamstring injury and will be expected to provide plenty of attacking inspiration.
Rangnick was full of praise for Yamal before the game but made it clear his players are well aware of the threat he offers.
“He is an excellent player, and he will be for the next 12, 13, 14 years or even longer if he stays healthy and keeps a good head on his shoulders,” he told reporters.
“If you look at [Lionel] Messi, you can see he could play a lot of matches. He’s one of the players we’ll watch very closely tomorrow. We’ll try not to give him space when he starts dribbling. He’s a player all fans love to watch, but it’s our task to make sure he has the ball as little as possible.”
Austria have come in for criticism during hte tournament but Rangnick thinks his team are doing OK.
“Well, we’re at the end of a very long season, and the fatigue is noticeable; it’s a factor that doesn’t depend solely on us. We’ve been working here for a month and we want to continue for a few more days,” he added.
“But I think we haven’t been too bad. We finished second in our group, we scored six goals, we celebrated with a party in the locker room… We’ll see what happens.
“We’re not going to play against the Spain of 2008 or 2010, so… I find it interesting to think that this is the first match we’ve played against a European team in the World Cup. We’ve seen that there have been some surprises.”
The winner of the tie between the two sides will go on to play Portugal or Croatia in the last 16.
Source: barcablaugranes.com
Post a Comment