By the time the match reached the 70th minute, England were three goals down in the UEFA European Championship final, and their opponents had the most valuable and arguably the best midfielder in the world.
Rice knew exactly what Leo was going to do next. If England were the ones leading 3-0, he would also be doing everything he could to take control of the tempo in midfield.
Leo began showing off his exceptional ability to shield the ball, carry it under pressure, and dictate the direction of the tempo.
Fans often talked about players who were excellent at controlling the tempo, but the phrase "dictating the direction of the tempo" had come from Scholes.
The 72nd minute!
Desperate to win the ball back as quickly as possible, England sent several players forward to press.
Laporte remained completely calm under pressure, just as he had at Manchester City, constantly scanning the field farther ahead.
A ball-playing center back never looks only for teammates nearby. There could be a defensive midfielder farther up the pitch, a forward, or any other teammate moving into position to receive the ball. The defender's job was to find them.
Laporte kept watching and waiting while carrying the ball backward into a deeper position.
He was deliberately dropping back to force Kane and Bellingham to press higher up the pitch. That high press would create the slightest pocket of space between England's midfield and forward lines.
Because England were already pushing forward to attack, their midfield line was also positioned high, so those spaces were tiny. Extremely tiny.
Under normal circumstances, it would be difficult for any player to exploit such a narrow opening.
Except Leo.
Because Leo wasn't an ordinary player, and he had always excelled at exploiting spaces that shouldn't have been usable in the first place.
Laporte waited patiently at the base of Spain's buildup until that tiny gap suddenly appeared. It might disappear again half a second later.
But within that half-second, Laporte released the pass.
He hadn't even seen Leo enter the space yet, but he knew that if he played the ball there, Leo would appear.
Bellingham sprinted toward Laporte's pass. The England players thought Laporte had made a mistake, until Leo arrived.
He used his shoulder to hold Bellingham off, cushioning the ball behind himself while knocking the midfielder away at the same time.
Normally, Leo would have driven forward from there before deciding what to do next.
This time, however, he dragged the ball back, effectively giving Bellingham another chance to defend him.
Then, a second later, Leo passed to Rodri.
Some of England's players were still near Spain's penalty area because Kane and the others had pushed so high while trying to dispossess Laporte.
Others, such as Henderson, had dropped deeper into midfield. Henderson had retreated quickly specifically to stop Leo from carrying the ball forward on the counterattack.
The result was that England had somehow left Leo's teammates completely free.
Simply through his presence, Leo had drawn the attention of virtually every England player toward himself.
That was the first step in dictating the direction of the tempo.
First, Leo pulled the focus of the match toward himself, making every England player feel that Spain's rhythm revolved around him. It was a kind of gravitational pull.
Once England began searching for the focal point of Spain's play and eventually fixed their attention on Leo, he moved the ball to Rodri.
And just like that, the direction of the tempo shifted again.
Rodri was now free to carry the ball and potentially launch Spain's counterattack, so control of the play had shifted to him. England were forced to adjust their positions around Rodri, trying to cut off his passing lanes and prevent him from driving forward.
Then Rodri played the ball back to Thiago.
Spain's midfield had completely taken control of where the match flowed.
Spain didn't even launch a counterattack from the move, yet England were suddenly left with an unsettling sense of uncertainty. Henderson and Saka once again found themselves unable to understand exactly what Spain were trying to do.
And if you couldn't understand what your opponent was doing, you couldn't score against them, much less come back and equalize.
Scholes had never imagined that Leo, once merely a player capable of controlling the tempo of a match, would develop into someone capable of controlling where that tempo went.
"There's a huge difference between controlling the tempo and controlling the direction of the tempo. To control the tempo, you first need to have the ball at your feet. But to control its direction, you don't necessarily need the ball. What you need is the complete trust of everyone around you, and those players also need to be capable of controlling the tempo themselves."
"I used to think Spain were simply a little better than England, but judging by that sequence, Spain have built their midfield around tactics on a completely different level, and they're being orchestrated by a player on a completely different level as well: Leo."
The 84th minute!
Leo was still stationed in midfield. England wanted to press, but they didn't dare leave him open because Laporte could always find him with a pass, while Gaya and Azpilicueta were constantly available on either flank to support him.
Once again, Laporte carried the ball all the way back into a deep position and waited for Kane to press.
This time, Henderson stayed tight to Leo and refused to let him receive the ball.
That left Azpilicueta on the right as the only available option.
Sure enough, Laporte passed to him.
The moment Azpilicueta received the ball, England's players quickly closed in as though they had finally found a weak point.
Compared with Leo, surely Azpilicueta wouldn't be able to help Spain escape pressure in their own half so easily.
At least, that was what the England players thought.
Then Azpilicueta suddenly nutmegged Saka before cleverly knocking the ball off Bellingham and out for a throw-in.
Against a two-man press, Azpilicueta had not only preserved possession for Spain but also earned a round of applause from the Spanish supporters.
Hierro was standing right beside him. After watching Azpilicueta handle the situation, he grabbed his head, planted a hard kiss on him, and shoved him back onto the pitch.
Leo immediately ran over as well, grabbed Azpilicueta's head, planted another kiss on him, then pushed him back toward his right-back position.
The two kisses seemed to give Azpilicueta two massive boosts of motivation. His blood was pumping as he stared at Saka like a hunter eyeing his prey.
Only a few minutes remained in the UEFA European Championship final.
Southgate made another double substitution, while Hierro sent Pedri on to replace Olmo.
Pedri absolutely deserved the chance to play in a UEFA European Championship final.
"Pedri is coming on! He'll replace Olmo!"
The Spanish supporters erupted in cheers for Pedri.
Then, just as Pedri was preparing to step onto the pitch, Leo suddenly walked over to him and removed his captain's armband.
Pedri stared at him in shock.
Leo smiled, then slipped the captain's armband onto Pedri's arm.
...
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