Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa has withdrawn from Spain’s squad due to his wife expected to give birth soon. His withdrawal means that the new Spain manager Luis Enrique has called up Iago Aspas as reinforcement. Despite making the World Cup squad in the summer, Aspas had not originally made Enrique’s first squad announcement.
Enrique has made a number of changes to Spain’s World Cup squad
Enrique also left out Koke and Jordi Alba as he rang the changes following Spain’s disappointing campaign in Russia. Aspas had memorably missed the last penalty in the penalty shoot-out that saw them go out to hosts Russia. Spain has called up three uncapped players – Jose Gaya (Valencia), Dani Ceballos (Real Madrid) and Pau Lopez (Real Betis). It will be interesting to see how the team react to their disastrous exit from Russia in the summer.
Aspas had scored his first goal of the season on Saturday against Diego Costa’s Atletico Madrid in a 2-0 home victory as the visitors had Stefan Savic sent off. Spain is due to play England at Wembley on Saturday 8th September in the UEFA Nations League.
England team has seen big changes too
England is also missing a number of key players after Raheem Sterling and Adam Lallana both withdrew due to injury. Ashley Young has been left out of the team, whilst Gary Cahill and Jamie Vardy have both made the decision to step down from the international duty.
Manager Gareth Southgate is concentrating on bringing some of his younger players through in readiness for the next major tournament in two years time. Players like Liverpool’s Joe Gomez and a rejuvenated Luke Shaw have come into the team that looks to build on what was considered to be a good World Cup tournament for England.
