Analysis: Lessons from Spain 4-0 Republic of Ireland
Friday 15 June 2012 13:36
Whether you're stuck without a telly or you're following the fallout on a second screen, check FourFourTwo's Twitter commentary during the match for illuminating analysis using the completely free Stats Zone app, fired by Opta statistics updated live during the game.
A few things StatsZone users shared during the Spain-Ireland game:
The Spanish soon settled into their tiki-taka ways, and as @RaviCNN pointed out, it took Spain 37 minutes to top the number of passes England completed against France.
Vicente del Bosque's decision to recall a true striker helped stretch the Irish. @CareFreeChronic noted at half-time how Torres was getting more long direct passes than Cesc Fabregas had against Italy.
By the end, Trapattoni's tireless team had been chasing Spain all over the pitch. @GaryParkinson spotted that the top tackler was, perhaps not obviously, Aidan McGeady.
After the torture was over for the Irish, @TotalFootballFC noted that the final-third passes "show the quality gap" (Spain completed 243 to Ireland's 31).
And finally, just about everybody compared the two sides' passing stats: it's probably the most shared screen in Stats Zone's brief but illustrious history. Sorry, Trap…
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