Former England boss Fabio Capello has said that Spain’s era of domination in world football is coming to an end after being defeated at the Confederations cup. Spain were beaten soundly 3-0 by Brazil in the final of the competition. Even though this was the second consecutive final defeat they have suffered in this competition, they have been quite brilliant in all the major tournaments. They have won two European championships and one World Cup during the last five years. However, Capello feels that the era of domination may come to an end after teams have found a way to play against Spain.

Spain’s passing style of football has been extremely difficult to play against in the last five years mainly because the opposition not have the ball long enough to hurt Spain. However, Italy were probably the first team to find a way past this possession style of football. Capello has stated that the three defender formation used by Prandelli in the semifinals of the Confederations cup is probably the blueprint to playing against Spain. Rather than use many defenders, Prandelli used only three and this allowed him to have more midfielders.

They restricted the space for the Spanish midfielders, which ultimately was close to securing a famous victory.

“I think Italy showed the way in the semi-finals of the Confederations Cup. They played with three defenders and that unsettled the Spanish, mainly because they closed down the space in midfield, fought hard for possession and avoided playing long balls. That’s why Spain suffered and it allowed other coaches to see how they might be beaten. It was an innovation back then, when the custom was for forwards not to do any pressing,” said Capello.

His job will be to guide Russia to a respectable place in the 2014 World Cup.