Marco Asensio could not hide his outrage on the bench in Real Madrid's 4-1 win over Mallorca earlier this month. The 26-year-old, who has fallen down the pecking order at the club, was spotted violently kicking a cool box and throwing his bottle to the ground after coach Carlo Ancelotti decided not to send him on as a substitute.

Ancelotti downplayed the incident at the post-match conference. "If he's angry, I agree with him," the Italian tactician said of Asensio. "It's normal, it means he wants to play, to feel important. In this period, he has been the player most affected in the squad and I take that into account. I'm totally in agreement with his anger. It's fine."

There is ample reason to understand Asensio's frustration. The Spanish attacking midfielder, who has played 239 games for Madrid and won three league titles and three Champions Leagues, has only made one appearance in La Liga this season. He will be out of contract with Los Blancos at the end of the campaign and as things stand, it is almost impossible for him to extend his stay at the club.

Little wonder that a lot of eyebrows were raised when Spain boss Luis Enrique opted to select Asensio in his starting line-up against Switzerland in the Nations League on Saturday night. To further complicate matters, he deployed Asensio as a false nine while snubbing out-and-out striker Alvaro Morata.

His bold decision badly backfired.

Enrique's side, the 2021 Nations League runners-up, were cut open by Switzerland time and time again despite monopolizing possession for long spells. Their fruitless attacks were blunted by the absence of a battering ram at the front and the Swiss, who had never before beaten Spain in Spain, managed to finish with more corners, more shots and more shots on target.

Manuel Akanji's first-half header deservedly put Switzerland ahead via a corner at La Romareda Stadium in Zaragoza. Asensio did, to some extent, repay Enrique's trust by creating the Spain equalizer with a brilliant assist to Jordi Alba. But Switzerland quickly hit right back when Akanji flicked on another corner for Breel Embolo to seal the winner.

It was Spain's first home defeat in 22 matches across all competitions since falling to England in the Nations League in 2018.

"We were sluggish, no, worse than sluggish," fumed Enrique. "They said that it was easy to beat Switzerland and we have seen that is not true in the least."

"They stopped us from playing our game, and you have to add to that our very sloppy first half. We improved in the second half, showed more precision, but just when we scored, we conceded another goal from a corner."

The stunning upset also means that Spain need to beat neighbors Portugal away on Tuesday to progress to the semifinals. The 2019 winners moved two points ahead of Spain at the top of Group A2 after a comfortable 4-0 win over Czech Republic.

Diogo Dalot broke the deadlock for Portugal before his Manchester United teammate Bruno Fernandes doubled the lead in the first half. Dalot put the game beyond doubt seven minutes after the restart and second-half substitute Diogo Jota added a late fourth.

It was an eventful night for Portugal's talisman Cristiano Ronaldo, who suffered a nasty blow to the face and bled after a collision with goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik. He was also penalized for handball in the box, but Patrik Schick squandered the resulting penalty kick. The 37-year-old assisted Jota's goal but ultimately failed to add to his record tally of 117 international goals.

The Czech Republic must now beat Switzerland in their final outing to avoid relegation to League B.