Does man marking Busquets work? It did for a few teams this World Cup. Perhaps the little bit of extra pressure and forcing him to get his head down and had an impact on Busquets ability to make the crucial pass.
At 34 years old, you wouldn’t think teams would even need to man mark Sergio Busquets. But that’s just what Morocco, Germany and Japan tried to do in the World Cup in Qatar. Actually, they not only tried to do it they did to some level of success.
All three teams rarely let Busquets turn or play that diagonal pass in behind the defense.
The man marking Busquets by teams in the World Cup forced him to play more square and back and not vertically.
As Ian Darke said during the broadcast of the Morocco game it’s hard to keep Busquets under lock and key for the entire game. Morocco did it though.
Death by a thousand passes as they say in football when playing against Spain. However, the Spanish side couldn’t find that final pass. They attempted 1000 passes versus Morocco but not one that led to a goal.
Germany’s Gundogan tried to man mark Busquets for most of the game. Morocco striker Youssef En-Nesyri man marking Busquets when they were not in possession. And En-Nesyri probably knows Busquets fairly well since he plays in Spain for Sevilla.
Japans had their striker shadow mark Busquets to disorganize the Spanish possession game
Busquets is a World Cup winner and multiple trophy winner at Barcelona. The master of tiki taka who learned his possession game for masters like Iniesta and Xavi. He’s a patient footballer. He usually knows how to find the killer pass in the end.
But not this time for Spain. They would lose in a shootout and to, sadly, top it off, Busquets would miss his penalty shot too.
Morocco and Spain faced off in the knockout stage of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The first half was a defensive one, as both teams got shots on goal but none of them went through. The second half was even more of a defensive struggle, with both teams managing to hold each other in check. They would head to extra time at 0-0. While both teams had multiple chances on goal, no-one scored and we would go to PKs. Morocco’s Goalkeeper Yassine Bono would block three Spanish chances and Morocco would win in PKs.
