Luis de la Fuente reveals Spain will not man-mark Lionel Messi even though he has scored eight goals and created four. The Spain coach told reporters the first time he saw Messi was 22 years ago when Messi was 16 years old. He tells a story about when he was coaching at Seville for the under-19s, and they played a Copa del Rey game against Barcelona.
Everyone was talking about Messi, so I put a man-marker on him for 70 minutes; the game was 0-0. The player marking him got booked, so I took him off and Messi scored four goals
Spain to Concentrate on Their Team, Not Messi
Luis de la Fuente reveals we are not planning on man-marking Messi, but we will pay close attention, just as they will pay close attention to our players. De la Fuente was asked about Argentina playing dirty and employing dark arts. Here is what he had to say:
I have extraordinary admiration for a team that is Copa America 2021, World Cup and Copa America 2024, and in another final, no one has done that in history.
Spain will be going into the final fearless and as a team that has the best defence. The question is, can the magician Messi unlock the door?
