Spain and Ivory Coast take on each other in the first quarterfinal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Saturday at the Miyagi Stadium.
Spain arrived to Japan as the No 1 contenders for the gold medal by a mile.
Their squad is made of several players who had a big role at the 2020 EURO this summer, including Unai Simon, Pau Torres, Eric Garcia, Dani Olmo, Pedri, and Mikel Oyarzabal.
If you add the names such as Marco Asensio, Mikel Merino, and talented Bryan Gil, you get by far the strongest team in this tournament.
Nevertheless, the Spaniards failed to impress in the group phase, despite topping their respective pool with five points from three games.
The only thing the head coach Luis de la Fuente can be satisfied is possession. Spain have averaged around 70% possession across the group-phase affairs.
No other team in the tournament came even close to this number. Possession helps the Spaniards reduce the number of chances in front of their goal.
Ivory Coast have much less quality in their ranks, but it did not prevent them from going unbeaten through a very tough Group D.
They played draws to the likes of Brazil and Germany, while clinching the only victory of the event against Saudi Arabia.
This will be the first head to head encounter between the Olympics teams of Spain and Ivory Coast.




译文(自动翻译仅供参考):

周六，2020年东京奥运会首个四分之一决赛将在宫城体育场举行。
西班牙队以领先一英里的优势来到日本争夺金牌。
他们的阵容由几名在2020年夏季欧洲杯上发挥重要作用的球员组成，包括乌奈·西蒙、保罗·托雷斯、埃里克·加西亚、丹尼·奥尔莫、佩德罗和米克尔·奥亚尔扎巴尔。
如果你加上马可·阿森西奥、米克尔·梅里诺和天才布莱恩·吉尔，你就会得到目前为止这支最强的球队。
尽管西班牙在小组赛中以三场比赛积5分的成绩领先对手，但仍未能在小组赛中给对手留下深刻印象。
主教练德拉福恩特唯一能满意的就是控球。西班牙在小组赛阶段的控球率平均在70%左右。
比赛中没有其他球队能接近这个数字。控球可以帮助西班牙人减少门前的机会。
科特迪瓦的实力要差得多，但这并没有阻止他们在D组的强队中保持不败。
他们与巴西和德国战平，同时战胜了沙特阿拉伯，取得了本届世界杯唯一的胜利。
这将是西班牙队和科特迪瓦队的第一次正面交锋。