The perfect evening for Fabián Ruiz

In the stands of the Olympistadion in Berlin, with the stands silenced an hour after Spain's brilliant 3-0 win over Croatia, Fabián Ruiz showed his family the trophy that shows him with the trophy he won for being the best player of the match. His assist for Morata's goal to open the scoring was superb, and he was superb when he scored the second with some genius footwork on the edge of the area before finishing with his left foot. MOTM in every sense of the word.

"I'm very happy. Not just for setting one up and scoring, but for the team's victory, for getting off to a good start in a great tournament. I'm very happy and very pleased, it was a dream match," said the Andalusian.

Things couldn't have gone better against Croatia and Fabián will always remember that match, especially for his goal. "Once I receive the ball, Modric comes to me and I try to dribble past him. Then I dribbled past Brozovic and found a gap under his legs and fortunately the ball went in," he said.

It was a stroke of genius, but not by chance, because in this team everything is worked on and Luis de la Fuente demands the players practise shots from the edge of the area every day . "He insists a lot that we finish plays off, that we shoot from the top of the box, and we train it almost every day. Before the game he told me, when I got there, to take advantage of my shot and shoot, even though it was with my left foot, which is not my strong one... But to try, to shoot, the important thing is to finish the play. After that goal went in, I remembered those words.

His goal was brilliant, but so was the assist he gave Álvaro Morata to leave him alone one on one with the goalkeeper. "I'm more used to giving assists. I'm just as happy because when I give a pass you help the team. And I'm happy for that pass to Morata because I think he deserves it, he's our captain and he's been through some bad times and I'm very happy for him. And it's also good to score goals from time to time, especially in a European Championships and playing for your country.

At 28 years of age, Fabián is has reached  a level maturity in his game that simply cannot be ignored. His progression at PSG has brought him back to the national team, very grateful for the vote of confidence given to him by Luis de la Fuente, whom he knows a lot from the youth ranks and with whom he won a European Under-21 Championships in 2019 and was also the best player of that tournament.

In Germany, he's in great spirits and sends a message to his people, to whom he is always there and to whom he dedicated his success. "I have to take advantage when I score a goal, I have to make a few dedications... The first one he made was a kind of "S", for my brother and his friends. I had never dedicated a goal to them and two days ago when saying goodbye to my brother and to my friends, he asked me to dedicate a goal to them. And then the typical celebration for me, which is for my girlfriend. She always supports me.