MADRID, 27 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The defender of Villarreal and the Spanish team Pau Torres is clear that the national team will arrive “prepared” for the challenge that the World Cup in Qatar will entail at the end of the year despite being a very young team and he sees that in this current group “there are desire and ambition to continue doing things well”.
“This team is going to be ready for the World Cup for sure. When we come here we make the most of the time and we have been working on the same idea of football for a long time and we understand what we want to play,” Pau Torres said in an interview with Europa Press during concentration in the Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas (Madrid).
In addition, he appreciates that the team has “young people who have already played many games with the national team.” “I think this is good because many have already broken the barrier of playing important games and in a tournament like
the European Championship We’re going to be ready,” he said.
In this sense, the defender recalled that the team was already able to “meet some goals” last summer at the European Championship where they were able to “compete against anyone” and showed that they have “great football at European level”.
And as for the comparisons with the past and the ‘golden generation’ that achieved the treble, he knows that this was “something historic”, but that as a Spanish team his “goals must be ambitious”. “Our challenge is to always win,” warns the footballer, who experienced that feat “like any child” his age. “Everyone remembers what he did and with whom he saw it. It was something unique and hopefully it can be repeated,” he wished, happy to see that those achievements had Villarreal as the protagonist with Marcos Senna, Joan Capdevila and Santi Cazorla.
On a personal level, he is “very excited” to be able to be in Qatar. “That’s what the daily work with the club is for and what we do when we come here to continue having the confidence of the coach that I’ve had until now and that is to be appreciated. I have to continue improving and absorbing concepts so that the team works at its best level”, indicated the defender from Villarreal.
“When it seemed that they were in demand, we all went out together,” the left-handed centre-back said with a smile, a quality that not too long ago was hard to find for the national team, which now has him, Aymeric Laporte and Íñigo Martínez, the latter injured and that he has not been able to attend this concentration. “That there is always competition is good. That good players appear is good because everything adds up, with the teammates that I have, I have to work to the maximum,” he added.
And the defense of the ‘Roja’ had to face a complicated transition after the goodbye of Gerard Piqué in 2018 and later the non-call for the EURO of Sergio Ramos, then captain and theoretical ‘boss’ behind.
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“No pressure at all,” Pau Torres replied firmly. “The coach is the one who was selecting those who he saw as more prepared or who he thought would do better what he wanted to ask for in this position,” the 25-year-old footballer added in this regard.
The Villarreal player also does not forget the role played by defenders in the team that “has the ball the longest” and where they must help with “good handling of the ball” because that is where the national team feels “strong”. “When the rivals are losing they come to put pressure on us high and we have to go out combining from behind, give support with the ball and when not, make good surveillance and be attentive to any situation”, he stressed.
Spain is going to play two friendlies in this break, one already settled with a victory suffered this Saturday against Albania and another this coming Tuesday against Iceland. Despite the nature of the matches and the stretch of the year at club level, the center-back is clear that “when you wear the national team shirt, no one relaxes and everyone gives their best because what is at stake is very important” . “We must have a good feeling for what is to come, feel prepared as a group and get victories,” he warned.
Pau Torres made his debut with the national team in November 2019, although he was already called up a month earlier by Robert Moreno. Already established practically as a ‘fixed’ also for Luis Enrique Martínez, he believes that since that date, in addition to the change of coach, “the group has been rejuvenated with young people with a lot of quality” and “a very good atmosphere” continues to exist. “There is desire and ambition to continue doing things well and with great challenges ahead”, he remarked.
The man from Villarreal has also experienced great things since then, both at the national team level with the European Championship, the Games and the League of Nations final, as well as with his club, with which he was champion of the Europa League, he played in the Super Cup. of Europe against Chelsea as soon as he got the Olympic silver and a few days ago he scored a key goal in Turin to qualify for the quarterfinals.
“In the end, in football, everything goes very fast and you practically don’t have time to stop and think about the things that we are achieving because after one game there is another one and one competition ends and another one arrives. Things are going well for me, the injuries they are respecting and I have the ambition to continue improving because I know I have room for improvement and for that I keep working”, he assured Europa Press.
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Protagonist of a strenuous summer in which he linked EURO, Games and European Super Cup and in which he was barely “at home. “I enjoyed very nice and different competitions at the same time. I think the EURO has more impact than the Games, but these are special because you can only experience them once and getting a medal is something unique and something that an athlete always wants.
“I hooked them with the Super Cup where we were able to compete against the European champion and then I stopped suddenly, he had to assimilate it, disconnect and have vacations. I disconnected so much that I was even sick for a few days. I missed the first three days of the League, but I have to thank the coach for giving me that break”, expressed the international.
Now, in the near future, he will have the challenge of facing one of the best ‘9’ in the world like the Pole Robert Lewandowski in the ‘Champions’ match against Bayern. “I faced him in the European Championship and I’m ready for whatever comes,” said Pau Torres, who does study something about his rivals. “Even if you know them, you have to know that the way they play has changed somewhat and they can do different things,” he said.