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Yeremy Pino has promising Spain debut

Luis Enrique handed the Villarreal star minutes in the biggest win in the nation’s recent history.

Italy v Spain – UEFA Nations League 2021 Semi-final Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Yeremy Pino was given an ideal situation to make his debut for the Spanish national side. They were not only up 2-0 on Italy by the time he came on, the European champions were also down a man thanks to Leonardo Bonucci’s red card. It was the perfect time for an attacker with Yeremy’s skill set to enter the fray.

According to SofaScore, Yeremi completed all three of his dribbles, won 5/6 of his ground duels, had three key passes and created two big chances for an overall match score of 7.7/10. Whoscored largely agreed in rating, giving him a 7.06/10, further noting that he drew two fouls and was only dispossessed once. It does need to be said though that it was a giveaway from Pino that ultimately resulted in Italy’s goal, though he wasn’t the only Spanish player to make a mistake in that sequence. But what will stick out to me are not the results of these rating algorithms, but one particular ball from Yeremy that shows exactly how special he is. About thirty seconds before this on the video you’ll see a nice aerial cross from Yeremy to Oyarzabal, but this one to Alonso was a different sort of sublime genius.

Hopefully, people outside of the Villarreal fanbase are starting to realize how special this kid is. He’s just as big a talent as Pau Torres is, he absolutely deserves to keep his starting place even when Samu Chukwueze is fit, and he is going to do a lot of damage to opposing defenses in La Liga for years to come. Congratulations Yeremi and endavant!