{"id":169936,"date":"2025-06-09T09:50:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T09:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/169936\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T09:50:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T09:50:17","slug":"spains-media-cannot-believe-what-theyve-seen-from-imminent-new-arsenal-signing-martin-zubimendi-in-latest-masterclass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/169936\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain’s media cannot believe what they’ve seen from imminent new Arsenal signing Martin Zubimendi in latest masterclass"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Arsenal transfer target Martin Zubimendi played the full 90 minutes as Spain lost to Portugal on penalties in the Nations League on Sunday night. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The midfielder opened the scoring for La Roja after 21 minutes, tapping home from close range after the ball fell nicely for him inside the penalty box.<\/p>\n

Portugal fought back through Nuno Mendes, before Mikel Oyarazabal\u2019s neat finish re-established Spain\u2019s advantage just before the break.<\/p>\n

Cristiano Ronaldo<\/a> then equalised for Roberto Martinez\u2019s team, before Alvaro Morata missed the decisive penalty in the shootout.<\/p>\n

Zubimendi is expected to sign for Arsenal<\/a> for \u00a351 million, and the North London club\u2019s hierarchy and fans certainly would\u2019ve been impressed with what they saw from him on Sunday in Munich.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by Lars Baron\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Zubimendi was impressive for Spain<\/a> against France in the Nations League semi-final last week, but arguably upped his game in the encounter with Portugal. <\/p>\n

Arsenal fans were hugely impressed<\/a> by their imminent new signing\u2019s performance, as he dictated the pace of the game from the base of the Spanish midfield in the absence of Ballon d\u2019Or winner Rodri.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s national media were particularly enthused by the Real Sociedad man\u2019s display, with AS<\/a> stunned by the ease with which he replaced the Manchester City man.<\/p>\n

The publication wrote in their assessment of the player\u2019s outing: \u201cHe played well against France, and even better against Portugal. He also found the reward of scoring. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not easy to join a team to fill the place previously occupied by the Ballon d\u2019Or. But he did it and passed the test with flying colours. He\u2019s like salt; you can\u2019t see it, but if it\u2019s missing, you\u2019ll notice it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deployed in a midfield trio alongside Barcelona\u2019s Pedri and Paris Saint-Germain\u2019s Fabian Ruiz, Zubimendi<\/a> ran the game, conducting Spain\u2019s build-up and driving his team up the pitch throughout.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by Vasile Mihai-Antonio\/Getty ImagesMartin Zubimendi\u2019s statistics vs Portugal<\/p>\n

Completing a staggering 101 passes (out of 107 attempted), Zubimendi was everywhere against Portugal, constantly trying to get on the ball and make things happen.<\/p>\n

His progressive passing numbers have been scrutinised at club level, but every time he\u2019s been put in a competent possession team, he leads the ball progression.<\/p>\n\nMartin Zubimendi\u2019s Statistics vs Portugal<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nMinutes Played<\/td>\n90<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nGoals<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nExpected Goals<\/td>\n0.64<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAccurate Passes<\/td>\n101\/107 (94%)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nChances Created<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nPasses into the Final Third<\/td>\n14<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nRecoveries<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Martin Zubimendi\u2019s Statistics vs Portugal \u2013 via FBRef <\/p>\n

Completing 14 passes into the final third, he was essential to getting Spain up the pitch.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, he still managed to break into the box and make a telling contribution with a goal, whilst maintaining his defensive work, with four recoveries.<\/p>\n

A stunning display, and Mikel Arteta<\/a> will hope he can replicate this at the Emirates<\/a>.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal transfer target Martin Zubimendi played the full 90 minutes as Spain lost to Portugal on penalties in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,23497,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-169936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-martin-zubimendi","11":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114652790051788708","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}