Spain’s impressive performance against Italy at Wembley drew worldwide plaudits, even as Luis Enrique’s side were eliminated on penalties in the Euro 2020 semi-finals.
Pedri’s sensational midfield performance, not misplacing a pass during the 90 minutes, dazzled, while they dominated the Azzurri, who were desperate for penalties by the end of extra-time.
“After nine years of crossing the desert, Spain have returned,” announced a proud Luis Enrique after the game.
But in one aspect they remain stranded in the Sahara, water running low, sun beating down.
It is the reason they were eliminated; the problem that has dogged them through the tournament and in fact for several years, since the days of David Villa and Fernando Torres - the lack of a killer striker.
Spain had the chances to beat Italy but spurned them, with Mikel Oyarzabal particularly guilty.
Alvaro Morata started on the bench and, despite scoring the equaliser, missed the crucial penalty in the shootout. He struck three goals at the tournament, but comfortably could have had double that.
Gerard Moreno was also profligate from the bench, failing to score any of his 15 shots through the competition, while nobody has had more efforts than Dani Olmo, with 20, despite him being another player who both did not score and also missed in the shootout.
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Some will point to NXGN 2021 winner Ansu Fati, the young Barcelona forward who scored four in seven at the start of the season before a nightmarish series of knee issues, but that is a lot of pressure to put on an 18-year-old who still has to work on his own recovery.
In any case, Fati is the exception that proves the rule, with Spanish academies bereft of lethal finishers.
Over the past decade, there has been a distinct lack of encouragement for raw talents to use their one-v-one skills at academy level. That is not only true for Spain, but for much of the elite football schools across Europe.
The focus is on possession football and playing between the boxes, meaning the days of Lionel Messi, Eden Hazard or Neymar developing and expressing their outstanding natural talent are gone.
In a sense, 'street football' is being killed by academy coaching programmes, and as playmakers have been increasingly cut adrift, so too have natural goalscorers.
It is seen in Spain’s current crop of forwards. Olmo, Ferran Torres and Pablo Sarabia are all versatile and can play across the front line, Moreno is happiest operating from the right and coming inside, while Morata’s movement is far better than his finishing.
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Celta Vigo’s Iago Aspas was one option for Luis Enrique to bring more of a lethal touch to the attack, but the coach has stubbornly refused to pick him.
“I have nothing negative to say about any player and less still about ones like Aspas,” said the coach ahead of the tournament. “Being coach means you have to take these kind of decisions.”
Given Luis Enrique barely used Adama Traore, even in situations like extra-time against a tiring Italy, it would have made more sense to bring Aspas.
However, the coach’s project is extremely young, with a couple of exceptions like captain Sergio Busquets, and so leaving the 33-year-old ex-Liverpool forward at home could have been for that reason.
The issues facing young Spanish strikers can be seen clearly at a club like Barcelona.
Since Messi - who is an outlier in every sense of the word - they have not brought through a striker worth his salt, instead turning to the transfer market to solve the problem (or in the case of some expensive failures, exacerbate it).
When they did have a player of that ilk on the books at youth level, in England youth international Louie Barry, now of Aston Villa, they did not use him, instead preferring Gerard Fernandez, ‘Peque’, for his more typically Spanish style.
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“They don’t play with a striker at Barcelona, they play with a false nine or two 10s. They don’t put balls through to the striker to run onto and go around the keeper,” a source close to Barry told Goal.
“Strikers are non-existent. An out and out nine, a Harry Kane or a Jamie Vardy, would be no good at Barcelona because they don’t play to that system. If (Erling Haaland) goes there he would struggle. Look at Martin Braithwaite.
“It’s frustrating because the ball never used to come, (Barry) was making runs and making runs.
"Tell me an out and an out striker in Spain? It’s the way they set up. If Vardy played for Barcelona he wouldn’t score many.”
Spain are set up well for the 2022 World Cup in many ways, and Luis Enrique is right to be positive after this tournament, but their goalscoring problem has no end in sight.
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