England’s friendly at Wembley on Tuesday night against Spain wasn’t the friendliest of friendlies. Tackles flew in and Jamie Vardy was perhaps lucky to stay on the pitch after following through on Chelsea’s Cesar Azpilicueta.
Given Marca have gone to the effort of writing a full article on the fouls, it may be considered strange that Thiago’s poor challenge, which injured Lallana, is completely ignored.
Tottenham’s Eric Dier does get a mention, with Marca sounding half annoyed and half impressed with the White Hart Lane favourite. Dier is said to have given ‘a lesson in how to make small tactical fouls’, without being cautioned by the referee because there was nothing ‘violent’.
Mauricio Pochettino may well be proud.
The Spanish newspaper say Dier led the English pressure, at times perfectly. In the player ratings, Marca give Dier (who they called Dyer in this section, and used a several year old photograph) two spades and say he was in charge of sweeping all the danger away for England, the country’s anchor.
Not bad for the Tottenham man, he managed to annoy Marca so much they gave begrudging praise.
