Luis de La Fuente, after Spain's unexpected result before the World Cup: “They surprised me”

The selector praised the reserves, as well as the eight debutants, and despite the apparently unsatisfactory result, he categorized the match as a difficult one.

Luis de la Fuente: “We are all in the phase where the players are adapting to this new reality”

Although Spain opened the scoring in the 16th minute through Ferran Torres, Iraq equalized in the 27th minute thanks to the success of Merchas Doski, setting the final score of the game at 1-1.

“They all deserved to play. The game allowed us to give debuts to players who deserved this chance. They helped us a lot. They are players for the future and we will see them in the senior team soon. Another goal achieved.

We are all in the phase where players are adjusting to this new reality. After a few days of rest, he must regain his competitive rhythm. All national teams plan for this. There are eleven days until Spain's first game and everything remains to be done for the team. We wanted to play for the win, but also to fulfill a series of conditions that we had set for each player in the fixed phases. Our approach remains the same.

I looked for more conditioning work after they had a few days off. It was a day to see how they feel, make sure there are no injuries and give opportunities to other players. Tomorrow we will start to approach things differently. We will be in the United States and that makes us think very clearly where we need to focus,” said Luis de la Fuente, according to AS.

The coach of Spain wanted to praise Iraq, a national team also qualified for the World Championship, for the game played on Thursday night.

Iraq surprised me in a very positive way. We struggled in the first half to stop their progression. Every match is difficult, but they showed pace, intensity and good combination play. They are an interesting team with a lot of energy. They pushed us and complicated things.

– Luis de la Fuente, Spain coach

Before the start of the final tournament, Spain will play another friendly match on June 9, in the Mexican city of Puebla, against the national team of Peru.

Spain's squad for the World Cup

• Goalkeepers: Unai Simon (Athletic Bilbao), David Raya (Arsenal), Joan Garcia (Barcelona)

• defense: Marc Cucurella (Chelsea), Alejandro Grimaldo (Bayer Leverkusen), Pau Cubarsi (Barcelona), Aymeric Laporte (Athletic Bilbao), Marc Pubill (Atletico Madrid), Eric Garcia (Barcelona), Marcos Llorente (Atletico Madrid), Pedro Porro (Tottenham)

• midfielders: Pedri (Barcelona), Fabian Ruiz (PSG), Martin Zubimendi (Arsenal), Gavi (Barcelona), Rodri (Manchester City), Alex Baena (Atletico Madrid), Mikel Merino (Arsenal)

• Strikers: Mikel Oyarzabal (Real Sociedad), Dani Olmo (Barcelona), Nico Williams (Athletic Bilbao), Yeremy Pino (Crystal Palace), Ferran Torres (Barcelona), Borja Iglesias (Celta de Vigo), Victor Munoz (Osasuna), Lamine Yamal (Barcelona)