Spain prepare for first World Cup warm up match

IANS  |  Villarreal 

The Spanish football team will play the first of two preparatory matches for the forthcoming as they take on at the Estadio de la Ceramica on Sunday night.

Asensio, Ramos and Vazquez were allowed to rest before joining up with the squad on Friday evening, while Carvajal is working in the installations of the Spanish Football Federation, (RFEF) at Las Rozas, just outside of as he tries to recover from the hamstring he suffered a week ago in

Nacho meanwhile gave up his chance of a week's holiday and joined up with his teammates at Las Rozas two days earlier than needed to carry out light training.

Lopetegui has been working with seven young 'promises' including Bilbao trio of Yeray Alvarez, and Inaki Williams, to overcome the absence of the players, although Nunez and Williams left the squad on Friday along with

Lopetegui will try and give most of the 18 players who are travelling to some match time, given that they have not played a competitive game since May 20 and have only one more practice match before kicking off their against in Sochi on June 15.

That means he is likely to start with something similar to his starting 11 in Sochi, with the obvious absences of Ramos and Carvajal, with starting at left back and maybe or partnering in central defence, although Yeray could have a chance of making his debut.

is expected to lead the attack and it will be interesting to see if Iago Aspas or is given the chance to stake a claim to be in the starting 11.

The Swiss travel after the training suffered by in-form Arsenal on Thursday and although the latter should be fit for Russia, he will miss out in Villarreal.

--IANS

pur/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Sat, June 02 2018. 20:40 IST