As Spain celebrated 12 years since their maiden World Cup win over the summer, many fans wondered when the good times would return. Having won three consecutive international tournaments throughout their Golden Generation, the likes of Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Fernando Torres and David Villa graced the international stage with their beautiful tiki-taka football, revolutionising the modern game.
Luis Enrique leads the Spaniards to Qatar in charge of a new era. Having underperformed at both Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018, eliminated earlier than expected, Spain jet off to the Middle East with a clean slate. It’s a cultural reset for La Roja on the football pitch, with the large Barcelona and Real Madrid contingent a thing of the past. After winning six of their eight qualifying games, conceding just five goals throughout, they could be a dark horse to go all the way this time around.
It certainly won’t be straightforward though. Spain have a tough group and with the youthful exuberance of Pedri and Gavi also comes inexperience in major competitions. It will be interesting to see how far they can go, but the first task will be topping the group. Read on, as we assess each of their opponents ahead of the 2022 World Cup.
Costa Rica
Spain begin their campaign with an afternoon kick-off against Costa Rica. Having navigated their way through the CONCACAF qualifying rounds, the Central American side joined Mexico, the USA and Canada in the tournament following a fourth-place finish in which they won seven games.
Colombian manager Luis Fernando Suarez has a talent pool of players at his disposal, including Premier League veteran Bryan Ruiz, Joel Campbell and three-time Champions League winner Keylor Navas, the star of the side. The Paris Saint-Germain shot-stopper, who has found himself second fiddle to Gianluigi Donnarumma this season, provides the biggest challenge for Spain to break down, but if they can find an early goal, as the Spain v Costa Rica odds suggest, it should be a relatively straightforward task.
Germany
The biggest obstacle en route to a top-of-the-group finish, Hansi Flick’s Germany are serial goal scorers and could cause an inexperienced Spain back-line a lot of issues. Having thrashed Lichtenstein 9-0 and Armenia 6-0, the Germans were rampant in the final third, but looked vulnerable defensively at Wembley against England. It could prove to be an open affair.
Flick inherited a side that were woeful in the last World Cup under Joachim Löw, and the Germans will want to improve on their group-stage exit having won the tournament in Brazil eight years ago. While it might be too soon to consider them tournament favourites, they represent Spain’s most difficult task in the group and could easily beat Enrique’s team.
Japan
Another dark horse for the tournament, Japan have quietly gone about their business since their unfortunate round of 16 exit to Belgium in the 2018 World Cup. They led the Belgians twice and had it not been for a 94th-minute Nacer Chadli goal they could have easily been the ones to make it to the quarter-finals. New stars have emerged in Premier League winner Takumi Minamino as well as Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma, who has looked exciting in his brief stint on English shores so far.
Having shipped just four goals in qualifying, Japan could well find themselves in a position where they could still progress on the final group game, making it a tough task for Spain who will have to match their industrious energy levels.
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