With the 2022 FIFA World Cup kicking off in 16 days, it’s time to explore one of Group E’s top contenders – the Matadors of Spain.
Every day until November 20th, we’ll explore a different team represented in this year’s tournament, from Group A to Group H, including predictions about where they’ll end up.
Yesterday, we looked at the Tunisian Eagles of Carthage. We’ll now look at one of the favorite squads to go deep this year – Spain’s Red Fury.
Spain
Group E
Nickname: The Red One, The Red Fury
Colors: Red, yellow, blue
Location:
Coach: Luis Enrique (Spain)
Top Players:
Spain is loaded with talent both young and old including Barcelona’s Ansu Fati, Pedri, and recent Golden Boy award winner Gavi. They’ve got César Azpilicueta of Chelsea and Real Madrid’s Dani Carvajal on defense and veteran Sergio Busquets in the midfield, alongside Marcos Llorente, Rodri, and Ferran Torres. Up top, Spain boasts Borja Iglesias and Nico Williams, who are both having great seasons in LaLiga this year. Everyone on Spain’s roster plays for a top-level Premier League, LaLiga, or Ligue 1 club – few teams can say that.
Team History:
Qatar will mark the 16th World Cup appearance for The Red Fury who won the Cup in 2010. Spain was shocked by Russia in the 2018 World Cup, exiting in the round of 16 on penalties to the host-nation team. The Spanish are also the 2021 Nations League runners-up. Spain has been on fire in 2022, only losing one game to Switzerland and defeating teams like Portugal along the way.
Tournament Prediction: Round of 16 loss to Belgium.
Group E is super, super, super hard to call. Germany and Spain are obviously top contenders, but Japan is also an excellent and disciplined team who shocked the world in 2018 by reaching the round of 16 and barely losing to Belgium. Spain opens against Costa Rica, which should be three points for the Red Fury. Germany is more than capable of beating Spain and vice-versa – we say Germany wins the group stage match-up. Spain should squeak out a win over Japan in their final match, but the Japanese could totally shock the Spanish. Still, we’re going to call Spain making out of the group in second place, meaning they will face the likely Group F winner, Belgium, in the knockout stages. We think Belgium takes that game 2-1, sending The Red One home blue.
Featured Image: Generated Image: DALL-E 2/SpanishNationalFootballTeam/DM
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