Scotland, land of lakes, whiskey and golf, received Spain yesterday with a shining sun. It has been twelve years since the two teams have seen each other and bridges had to be built before this evening’s match. “They have evolved a lot, they continue to dominate the direct game but now they bring depth and breadth to the wings in their game”, warned Luis de la Fuente yesterday from Hampden Park, home of the match. “Not to mention the level of their footballers, who play in teams like Liverpool or Arsenal”, he added.
After closing the debut against Norway in front of the cheering Málaga crowd with a thrashing, with plenty of positive points but also some negative ones, the new coach faces his first trip to the absolute bench in Glasgow. And he does it cautiously but full of optimism. “We’ve only had four training sessions and against Norway I already saw automatisms, we can only grow”, he congratulated himself.
History supports his optimism. Scotland have not beaten Spain since 1984, on the way to the World Cup in Mexico, precisely on the same stage as today and with a goal from Sir Kenny Dalglish included.
During his time as under 21 coach it was very common for De la Fuente to make quite a few changes to his starting eleven from one match to another in the same stoppage. “If I’ve done it before and it worked for me, why should I change?”, he questioned, answering at the same time. Spain will show off against Scotland an eleven with several new faces compared to the match against Norway. Among the candidates to occupy a position as holders, two stand out above the others. The first is undoubtedly Joselu. Espanyol’s goalscorer was the main protagonist at La Rosaleda with a record debut thanks to his two goals and has bought tickets to break into the eleven. Also Ceballos, one of the coach’s trusted men, surprisingly substitute in Málaga but who was the first change in the second half.
Beyond the match against Scotland, Luis de la Fuente stopped yesterday especially to talk about the Blaugrana Gavi, to whom he distributed almost as many praises as warnings. “He is in the maturity phase and we have not seen his best version, yet, he has virtues such as energy, courage or genius. Give me a Gavi before other types of players”, he began. However, he later changed his tone: “When he acquires more maturity – he repeated the term – he will be able to control behaviors that are now not beneficial for him or the team, such as seeing cards so early. It’s something we talked about with him.”
