RECIFE, PE (FOLHAPRESS) - For the first time since starting to compete in World Cups, Spain started a World Cup without a Real Madrid player among the squad. This Friday (10), however, the person who will try to prevent Spain from qualifying for the semi-finals will be precisely an athlete from the club: Belgium goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois.
Real Madrid goalkeeper Courtois tries to stop Spain without club athletes for the first time in World Cups
RECIFE, PE (FOLHAPRESS) - For the first time since starting to compete in World Cups, Spain started a World Cup without a Real Madrid player among the squad. This Friday (10), however, the person who will try to prevent...
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The absence of Madrid fans on Luis de la Fuente's list ended a sequence that spanned all of Spain's appearances in the competition. At different times, names like Zamora, Camacho, Butragueño, Hierro, Raúl, Casillas, Sergio Ramos and Carvajal simultaneously represented Real Madrid and the national team in World Cups.
Starting left back, Marc Cucurella arranged his transfer to Real Madrid during the World Cup. Called up as a Chelsea player, he will join the club after the tournament.
Previously, the edition with the fewest Madrid fans in La Roja had been the first World Cup in Brazil, in 1950, with just one merengue player in the Spanish team, Luis Molowny.
"I don't take into account whether a player comes from one club or another. I look at the general picture to see if he can be a player for the Spanish national team," said the coach after releasing the list.
The absence of Madrid fans helps explain the change in the team's profile. Barcelona, ??with eight squads, now concentrates much of the team's backbone, with players such as Lamine Yamal, Pedri, Dani Olmo and Pau Cubarsí among the starters. Unai Simón, from Athletic Bilbao, Rodri, from Manchester City, and Mikel Oyarzabal, from Real Sociedad, are also part of this nucleus.
The elimination by Morocco in the round of 16 of Qatar 2022 paved the way for this reformulation led by Luis de la Fuente. In this World Cup, the team won the five matches played, still did not concede goals and established, with Unai Simón, the longest streak without being leaked in the history of the World Cups.
On the other hand, Courtois is competing in his fourth World Cup and is one of the remnants of the Belgian generation that finished the 2018 World Cup in third place. At 34 years old, he reached the quarterfinals after regaining his place in the national team and once again becoming one of the main references of the team led by Rudi Garcia.
On the eve of the match, he said he knew the Spanish style of play well from his years at Atlético de Madrid and Real Madrid and classified De la Fuente's team as one of the favorites for the title.
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Source:
Noticias ao Minuto - Esporte
