Alvaro Morata captained Spain to a win over France on Tuesday to see La Roja book their place in the final of Euro 2024, but the striker suffered an unlucky injury during the celebrations
Alvaro Morata appears to have suffered an injury after being taken out by a security guard following Spain’s win over France.
Morata captained Spain during the semi-final at Euro 2024, with goals from Lamine Yamal and Dani Olmo sending La Roja into Sunday’s final. But as he celebrated his side’s win after the final whistle, Morata was taken out and left with an apparent knee injury.
The striker was standing on the outside of Spain’s celebrating huddle when a security guard ran in and slipped over. The man slid between Morata’s leg, causing his knee to twist round.
BBC Sport broadcast the images of Morata’s collision, with presenter Gary Lineker saying: “There’s one concern I’m just being told. We’ve seen images of Morata.
“Someone comes in, slips in and it looks like he’s twisted his knee. I mean that would be the most dreadful luck. Obviously he was off the field of play. He came off, but let’s hope that’s not serious. No one would wish that on anyone.”
Further images were shown later in the programme, with Morata frequently crouching down to clutch his knee. Lineker added: “You can see him running in there, slips, catches him. Not sure he looks too bad.
“Hopefully that’s not too bad, there’s no physios around him. But we can see he’s still struggling. He’s limping quite heavily and he looks upset. God imagine that, just before a final and something like that happens. Horrendously bad luck.”
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Morata walked through a tunnel of applause after the incident, though he was clearly left angry and continued to limp around. The Atletico Madrid star has played a key role in Spain’s run to the final of this summer’s tournament.
And he was pivotal once again in the semi-final win over France, frequently dropping deep to help out his defence. La Roja had actually fallen behind to Randal Kolo Muani’s early header.
But Yamal curled in a wondergoal from long-range after 21 minutes before Dani Olmo added a superb second four minutes later. Spain were forced to weather intense pressure from France in the second-half.
They did so admirably though, with Morata being substituted off with 14 minutes remaining. Despite a big chance falling the way of France skipper Kylian Mbappe, Spain held on to their lead to book their place in Sunday’s final.
They will face either the Netherlands or England in Berlin, with that semi-final to be played on Wednesday night. Morata now faces a nervy wait to see if he will be fit enough to play.
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