After two matches with an eleven of a kind, only with rotation on the right side, the Spanish coach, Luis Enrique, has decided to make five changes to his starting line-up for the last match of the group stage of the World Cup in Qatar against Japan, which part as second in the group before the game.
The Spanish team arrives at the match as the leader of their group and with many options to get into the round of 16. A victory ensures first place, a tie for classification and even defeat gives them options to be in the round of 16 depending on the result in the other group match between Costa Rica and Germany, last with one point, the one achieved against the Spanish.
With this context, the Asturian coach has preferred to refresh both the defense and the forward and continue betting on the same players in the center of the field, where the Catalans Pedri, Gavi and Busquets remain, the latter receiving a sanction after the yellow card that saw in the match against Germany.
In the rear, on the other hand, only Rodri continues as a starter, again as a central defender despite regularly playing as a pivot in the midfield. Azpilicueta, who played the first match against Costa Rica, returns to the right side, while the young Barcelona player Alejandro Balde will play on the left side. Pau Torres will be Rodri’s partner in the defense axis.
As for the forward, the novelties are Nico Williams and Álvaro Morata, scorer in the draw against Germany coming off the bench. Both Marco Asensio and Ferran Torres fall out of the starting eleven. The only one who is still in the offensive plot as a starter is Dani Olmo.
In this way, Spain comes out with the following starting eleven: Unai Simón, Azpilicueta, Rodri, Pau Torres, Balde, Busquets, Pedri, Gavi, Nico Williams, Dani Olmo and Morata. For its part, Japan will try to surprise with these players: Gondo, Itakura, Yoshida, Taniguchi, Ito, Morita, Tanaka, Nagatomo, Kamada, Maeda and Kubo.
