Euro 2016: Five players who let Spain down in France

4) Sergio Busquets

Sergio Busquets was bossed by Italy's midfield

Sergio Busquets is often called one of the most underrated and intelligent players in the world. His movement in the anchor role, intelligently winning the ball and playing key passes goes unnoticed a lot of times. But this time, it was almost truly absent.

Just like Ramos, his performance deteriorated as the tournament progressed. He is not a player who would use physicality to boss the midfield but he was completely outclassed by the Italians. he wasn’t given time and space on the ball to play anything forward and wasn’t allowed too many link-ups either. He just played short passes to Fabregas and Iniesta or was forced to pass backwards by the pressing. Defensively, he couldn’t deal with the pace of the Italians on the counter.

The most important central-midfield underperforming meant that Spain had no chance against a well-oiled opposition like Italy and Busquets’ performance did hurt them real bad. Spain had to switch to some desperate long rangers towards the end but Buffon was up for it and ensured a comprehensive win for the Italians.