‘There is a magnificent balance’: how Spain built a record-breaking defence

The Spain goalkeeper Unai Simón has not conceded a goal at the World Cup and, worryingly for Belgium, he has not had to face that many shots “We’re the villains, there to stop the goals that football lives off,” Unai Simón says. If so, there has never been a bad guy as bad as him, the keeper who could do with an introduction from Don LaFontaine: In a World Cup dominated by forwards, one man resists … There were five minutes to go until half-time during Spain’s battle with Portugal in the last 16 when something historic happened, or there would have been if anything had actually happened. Inste

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