UEFA has confirmed the schedules of the UEFA Under-21 matches, which will take place from next March in Hungary and Slovenia. Spain was paired in the group with Slovenia, Italy and the Czech Republic.
La Rojita will make its debut on Wednesday March 24 (6:00 pm) in the Slovenian town of Maribor precisely against Slovenia, one of the two hosts of the tournament. An a priori inferior rival and that despite playing at home will not be able to count on the warmth of his audience, since the tournament will presumably still have to be behind closed doors.
His second match will be played on Saturday 27 on the same stage against Italy (9:00 p.m.). Finally, the group stage will close on Tuesday, March 30 (9:00 p.m.) in Celje against the Czech Republic.
Spain is the favorite in its group to access the quarterfinals, since it is the first to see that this championship consists of 16 teams and two from each group qualify for the quarterfinals. Qualified teams will have to wait several months to decide the tournament, since the quarterfinals, semifinals and final will be played between May 31 and June 6 (in the next FIFA break). This change in the calendar has been caused by the postponement of the absolute Eurocup and the Olympic Games from 2020 to 2021.
For this first phase, it is presumable that Luis de la Fuente will not be able to count on several of his best players, since it coincides on dates with official matches of the Absolute, which will begin his way to the 2022 World Cup. Ferran, Olmo, Eric García and Ansu Fati could, by age, play the championship, but it has become indisputable for Luis Enrique. The Asturian will have to decide whether to yield to any of them to the Under-21, something complicated considering the importance of the Absolute matches.