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Last year’s runner-up Spain is in Seville to face Portugal, the inaugural Nations League champion in 2019, in the opening game of Group 2 in the top-tier League A. Portugal has not beaten Spain away since a friendly in 1937, with five consecutive draws.
Luis Enrique, Spain coach: “The objective, as always, is to win all the games and win the competition. Our objective is always to aspire to the maximum. [Spain and Portugal] know each other well; they are very well-organised. You only have to look at what their players cost and on top of that they have recently won important titles. That motivates us.”
Fernando Santos, Portugal coach: “This Nations League group contains some of the best teams in the world. We know it will be very difficult but our goal is to win it. Spain’s strongest attribute is their ability to recover the ball. We want to continue our way of playing from our last two games [the World Cup play-offs wins against Turkey and North Macedonia]. We are not going to make big changes in this first game.”
Spain: Unai Simon; Azpilicueta, Eric Garcia, Jordi Alba; Busquets, Koke, Rodri; Gavi, Morata, Ferran Torres
Portugal: Rui Patrício; João Cancelo, Pepe, Danilo, Guerreiro; Bruno Fernandes, João Palhinha, Rúben Neves; Bernardo Silva, Ronaldo, Diogo Jota
Form guide –
Spain (most recent match first): WWWWLW
Portugal (most recent match first): WWLDWW
In another League A game, the Czech Republic hosts Switzerland. In League B, Israel hosts Iceland, Sweden visits Slovenia and Norway is at Serbia. North Macedonia is at Bulgaria in League C.
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