Spain’s team competing at the UEFA U-21 Euros is ridiculously talented, as we’ve laid out before.
Saúl Ñíguez is making a case to be the best of the lot.
The Atletico Madrid midfielder notched a brilliant hat trick to send Spain past 10-man Italy 3-1 in the semifinals to set up a date with Germany in the final on Friday.
Poor Gianluigi Donnarumma didn’t have a chance.
Ñíguez started off by taking over from a nice run by Dani Ceballos and using one touch to control and a second to blast low past the Italian prodigy in goal early in the second half.
Though Italy pulled one back in the 62nd minute despite having Inter Milan’s Roberto Gagliardini sent off in the 58th, Ñíguez had an answer three minutes later.
Donnarumma may be considered one of the best young keepers in the world, but he didn’t get close to Ñíguez’s long-range blast.
The reaction from teammate Inaki Williams was priceless.
Inaki Williams reaction to Saul golazo #U21EURO #ESPITA pic.twitter.com/GC76zfT9fz
— Scot Munroe (@scot_munroe) June 27, 2017
Ñíguez added one more goal nine minutes later to put the Italians away, making a late-arriving run into the box before slamming home his third first-time from 17 yards out.
In three matches — he was rested in the final group-stage match — Ñíguez has five goals.
More impressively, he’s only taken seven shots. Five of them were on target.
7 - Saul Ñiguez’s shots in the 2017 European Under-21 Championship:
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Amazing. pic.twitter.com/dJRJpccCIr— Football Facts (@FootbalIFact) June 27, 2017
Imagine if Cristiano Ronaldo had a strike rate like Ñíguez?
In the past year, Ronaldo scored on 16 percent of his shots. Ñíguez is scoring on 71 percent of his shots at the Euros. If Ñíguez took as many shots as Ronaldo at this clip, he’d score 255 goals per season.
Sure, Ñíguez is up against lesser competition, but Donnarumma is considered among the top young keepers in the world. And he has to fend off teammates Marco Asensio, Denis Suarez, Williams and others for the right to shoot.
At 22, Ñíguez has already made a name for himself in the Champions League, scoring an incredible solo goal against Bayern Munich and scoring four goals in 10 starts this past season.
He’s tough too, having spent two years pissing blood following an on-field clash that left him with a severe kidney injury. He played with an internal catheter that sounds more unpleasant than a Pepe elbow to the chops.
We can’t wait to see what he does Friday against Germany.
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