Alvaro Morata endured a frustrating afternoon in Toulouse as the Spain forward struggle to live up to the hype in his country’s Euro 2016 win over the Czech Republic
The Juventus striker has been heavily linked with a move to Chelsea this summer as new manager Antonio Conte looks to strengthen his forward line.
Romelu Lukaku and Gonzalo Higuain, to name but two others, have also been mentioned but Morata is thought to be closer to sealing a Premier League switch.
But he didn’t add any value to his price tag in this opening Group D clash with the Czechs and his afternoon started badly as he clattered into a linesman’s in the early stages.
Sporting a shaven head, courtesy of team-mate Sergio Ramos, the Blues target wore the No. 7 shirt made famous by his idol Raul.
After that painful start, a great run and delivery by David Silva saw Morata dart in front of a defender at the near post and force a good save from Petr Cech.
As the half-hour mark approach, Morata found himself in possession on the left and dragged another shot wide after selling his marker a dummy.
Getting away with an offside call, the striker then conjured up a lovely flick to release Jordi Alba, but the full-back couldn’t make the most of the opportunity.
The one criticism levied on Morata was that he was perhaps too keen to get on the ball and drifted into the channels rather than playing within the width of the six-yard box.
He trotted off on 62 mins to be replaced by Aritz Aduriz of Athletic Bilbao and won’t look back on this performance with great pride.
In mitigation, it must be noted that Morata has been struggling with a thigh injury and missed last week’s final warm-up game with Georgia due to the problem.
He was only declared fit on Thursday and was seemingly missing a touch of sharpness against a Czech Republic side who defended heroically in France.
Chelsea’s Cesc Fabregas also started the game for Spain alongside Morata and got 70 minutes under his belt before being replaced.
Winger Pedro was given a 10-minute run-out at the end of the game after coming off the bench for Nolito as Spain won it 1-0 late on through Pique.
