25 player provisional squad for EURO 2016. Key commissions: Diego Costa, Juan Mata and Fernando Torres. GOALKEEPERS Iker Casillas .................. FC Porto (POR) David De Gea ................ Manchester United (ENG) Sergio Rico .................... Sevilla DEFENDERS Sergio Ramos ................. Real Madrid Gerard Piqué .................. FC Barcelona Dani Carvajal ................. Real Madrid Jordi Alba ....................... FC Barcelona Marc Bartra .................... FC Barcelona Cesar Azpilicueta ............ Chelsea (ENG) Mikel San Jose ................ Athletic Club Juanfran ......................... Atlético Madrid MIDFIELDERS Bruno Soriano ................. Villarreal Sergio Busquets ............... FC Barcelona Koke ................................. Atlético Madrid Thiago Alcantara ............. Bayern Munich (GER) Andres Iniesta .................. FC Barcelona Isco ................................... Real Madrid David Silva ....................... Manchester City (ENG) Pedro Rodriguez .............. Chelsea (ENG) Cesc Fabregas .................. Chelsea (ENG) Saul Niguez ...................... Atlético Madrid FORWARDS Aritz Aduriz ...................... Athletic Club Nolito ................................ Celta de Vigo Alvaro Morata .................. Juventus (ITA) Lucas Vazquez .................. Real Madrid Players invited to join training squad: GK - Sergio Asenjo ............ Villarreal GK - Pau Lopez ................. Espanyol DEF- Hector Bellerin ........ Arsenal (ENG) DEF- Diego Llorente .......... Rayo Vallecano DEF- Jorge Meré .............. Sporting de Gijón DEF- Jonny Castro ........... Celta de Vigo MID- Pablo Fornals ........... Málaga MID- Marco Asensio .......... Espanyol MID- Denis Suárez ............ Villarreal FOR- Iñaki Williams ......... Athletic Club FOR- Mikel Oyarzabal ....... Real Sociedad
Probably for the best Fernando how do their current strikers compare to guys like Torres/Villa/Guiza/Llorente/Soldado?
Sad not to see Torres. Seems like he always comes up big for Spain in key moments, and would be a good back up option. I worry that Spain's lack of fire power up top is going to be their biggest problem this summer. Especially when you compare it to Germany and France's attacking options.
maybe O/T but it's striking (no pun intended) that none of Torres former rivals for the NT scored more than he in La Liga this season. Soldado had 5 goals but made up for it with 12 assists in 28 league games Negredo had 5 goals in 24 matches Llorente having 4 goals in 23 matches Torres having 11 goals in 30 league matches. Not too familiar with Spain's current line-up up top but just caught my attention. Over the past 4 years these guys were gunning for Torres' job.
I can only remember one moment in which he came up big (Euro 08 final). Otherwise he was pretty average for the national team.
he did provide the assist for Spain's first goal in that tournament. Also euro 2012 final. Goal and an assist in like 15mins
No one that Spain is bringing to the Euros as an attacker puts fear in the opponents I feel. You fear Reus, you fear De Bruyne, you fear Griezmann. That guy for Spain this year was without a doubt Torres. He's been great for Atleti and would have provided that intimidating force that opponents need to game plan against. With all do respect to the likes of Morata, I don't think he's that guy. Not yet at least. As always, the midfield is incredible and the back four, great. It's the attack that concerns me. Then again, when Spain went back to back to back, most of the scorelines were one or two nil anyways.
I have no complaints about Torres being dropped, haven't seen him have a good game for Spain for a while now. With the goalless wonder (Costa) out as well, we can finally give some new options a chance. They wouldn't be able to do much worse.
It took a lot of cojones for him not to bring in Costa. Crappy for Spain but still recognized as a top striker
at least half of our players in this game won't go to the Euros. Nice for a lot of the younger players like Suarez and Williams to get a game but if the goal is to sharpen up before the Euro then what was the point of this game? Also, hopefully Nolito starts for us.
This match was scheduled before the CL final teams were known so that is why several key players were absent for this match.
There's always a good chance that a Spanish team (or two) makes it into the finals. Despite this game being scheduled way in advance, they should take that into account. To me it doesn't make sense at all to plan a game at this date.
But how many more friendlies are scheduled? UCL final on May 28. Euros begin June 10. That's twelve/thirteen days. The window to prepare shortens if you wait a few days after Milan. I see nothing wrong scheduling today's friendly. As mentioned, it's good to see youngsters who wouldn't normally get a call up have the opportunity to represent.
Carvajal is out for the Euros after being injured in the CL final. He sure has some rotten luck, he missed the World Cup due to injury as well.
Sorry if this out of topic here...but I have 2 cat 1 tickets for the match against Croatia. If anyone is interested please PM me. Thanx
It's official Porteros: De Gea, Iker Casillas y Sergio Rico. Defensas: Juanfran, Bellerín, Piqué, Bartra, Ramos, San José, Jordi Alba y Azpilicueta. Centrocampistas: Busquets, Bruno, Cesc, Lucas Vázquez, Silva, Koke, Iniesta y Thiago. Delanteros: Morata, Aduriz, Nolito y Pedro. Sad not to see Carvajal . Happy to see Nolito . Happy not to see both Isco and Saúl.
whys Casillas still part of the NT? 1 would think he'd have retired by now by choice or perhaps let go. Let some of the younger keepers get experience.
Starting XI v Korea Republic in Salzburg: ........................Casillas........................ Bellerin - Piqué - Bartra - Azpilicueta .............Cesc - Bruno - Iniesta............ ............Silva - Morata - Nolito............ 15 minutes in. 0-0
Honestly, I don't think it's going to matter much since neither of them will get any playing time. (at best one of them will get 30 minutes on the 4th group game and assuming we already qualified). That said, I watched Saul week in week out, he is amazing 1 out of 10 games.. like Isco who I really dislike for similar reasons. I don't know about Lucas honestly but like I said it won't matter since he will probably not play.