While Italy cries and Portugal waits -eye, that the normacedonio Trajkovski he’s on the loose and on Tuesday there’s an end to Port–, Spain enjoys the national team breaks with the peace of mind of having done the homework in due time. Albania, rival today in Cornellà, and Iceland, which will be in A Coruña on Tuesday, serve as sparring partners so that La Roja tunes the racing car with a view to the World Cup that awaits at the end of the year in Qatar.
Today’s game has a headline written on its forehead: “Spain returns to play in Catalonia 18 years later”. It will do so at the RCDE Stadium, where tickets are practically sold out. There is a desire to see that National Team that has not stopped growing since Luis Enrique took over the controls. If we look only at sports and leave aside statements and other anecdotes, the team has played the semifinal of the European Championship, the final of the Nations League and has achieved the passport for the World Cup with the Spaniard. And that, in view of skids like the one suffered by Italy last Thursday in Palermo, with its goodbye to its second consecutive World Cup despite being the current European champion, deserves to be taken into account. The National Team returns to the scene with a surprising actor, Brentford goalkeeper David Raya, and another to which we must cling yes or yes to write the best football. Is about Pedri, who returns after the fateful penalty shootout at Wembley in the semifinal of the European Championship last summer. The canary finished 2021 on the chassis, required in all possible club and national team competitions, but in recent weeks he has returned to his best version, forcing us to pinch ourselves to realize what we can enjoy with him. And how old he is. Eighteen. Yes, eighteen.
Bare plays at home. This time, however, Pedri will not have Busquets as a partner in midfield. His absence opens the doors of nostalgia, because in Luis Enrique’s call there is not a single representative of the world champion Spain in 2010. Of course, Sergio, whose baton remains in the hands of Rodri, it is only a deserved and understandable rest, because you can bet with your eyes closed that it will be the conductor in that World Cup whose draw will be held next Friday in Doha.
The parakeet fan, and the one who is not a parakeet but is willing to leave his throat today in Cornellà, will miss Raúl de Tomás, whose absence due to shoulder discomfort leaves Morata or Ferran Torres as possible starters, whose second surname is polyvalence. The one who will be, although in this case on the rival side, will be fellow Spaniard Keidi Bare, one of the three ingredients of LaLiga (along with Myrto Uzuni, from Granada, and Ivan Balliu, from Rayo) in an Albanian team (65th in the FIFA ranking) that doesn’t know what it’s like to beat Spain after seven matches. “It is the ideal party”, Luis Enrique confessed yesterday. He will have goals, then. It is what is expected of any party. Cornellà’s is.