Aymeric Laporte produced a sensational piece of defending against Portugal on his Spain debut.
The Manchester City star made his first appearance for La Roja on Friday since switching international allegiances.
And he made an instant impression, displaying his incredible defending while showing off how comfortable he is on the ball.
Laporte won his duel against Liverpool forward Diogo Jota by delivering an inch-perfect slide tackle before looking for a teammate.
He subsequently skipped past an on-rushing Portuguese player then played a pass up-field.
Aymeric Laporte’s first bit of defending for Spain 🔥 pic.twitter.com/MlaUBZgwKv
— SPORTbible (@sportbible) June 4, 2021
Laporte’s brilliant showing on the international stage got fans talking online.
Aymeric Laporte deserves to play every week, he’s way too good to be in and out of the team at club level. pic.twitter.com/IfrHCMKMFS
— TalkFCB © (@talkfcb_) June 4, 2021
It’s a good game so far & unsurprisingly Laporte is playing like he has 40++ caps for Spain.
— Ameerul (@fabme4) June 4, 2021
Laporte is a fucking baller man. Bossing this game, and some City fans think he’s dusted 😭😭
— ¹⁰ 🇦🇷 (@KunElGrande) June 4, 2021
Laporte would arguably be our best defender and he sits on the bench at Man City 😑😑
— N. (@NalinFCB) June 4, 2021
One tweeted: “If Laporte gets a proper run of games he will be better than Stones.”
A second wrote: “France catching a huge L not letting him play. He’s damn good.”
A third added: “Lowkey should have started in the UCL final.”
🇪🇸 Spain debut for Aymeric Laporte ✅#EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/AqPDmpaTfs
— UEFA EURO 2020 (@EURO2020) June 4, 2021
Laporte helped his side keep a clean sheet on his Spain debut, preventing the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Joao Felix from scoring.
The French-born centre-back heads into the tournament having played back up to John Stones and Ruben Dias last season.
Luis Enrique’s team face Lithuania next Tuesday before kicking off their Euro 2020 campaign against Sweden on June 14.
They also take on Poland and Slovakia in the group stage phase.