La Roja play Lithuania at Butarque this evening in remarkable circumstances. Given the 24-man squad Luis Enrique chose to contest Euro 2020 are unable to play tonight after Sergio Busquets tested positive for covid-19, U21 coach Luis de la Fuente has taken charge and named ten debutants plus Bryan Gil in the starting lineup.
🚨 OFICIAL | ¡¡YA TENEMOS EL ONCE TITULAR!!
👥 Estos son los jugadores elegidos por Luis de la Fuente para saltar de inicio al césped de Butarque.
¡¡A por la victoria, equipo!! 💪🏻#SomosEspaña pic.twitter.com/1KQlZy03uE
— Selección Española de Fútbol (@SeFutbol) June 8, 2021
Gil, contracted to Sevilla but someone who made his bones on loan at Eibar last season, is joined in the starting lineup by fellow La Liga mainstays Oscar Mingueza, of Barcelona, and Marco Cucurella, of Getafe, the latter of which will captain Spain this evening. Lithuania have suffered consecutive defeats heading into this game, losing to Estonia 1-0 before losing 3-1 to Latvia. They won’t be competing at Euro 2020.
Last time Spain had 10 debutants for a senior international was in 1941 v Portugal, after team had not played since Civil War broke out in 1936 (via @LaLigaenDirecto) Hashtag historico.
— Dermot Corrigan (@dermotmcorrigan) June 8, 2021
Spain drew 0-0 with Portugal on Friday evening at the Wanda Metropolitano, and have no more warm-up games after tonight ahead of the highly-anticipated start of Euro 2020. They’ll play all three of their group games in Seville’s La Cartuja; they face Sweden next Monday, Poland next Saturday and Slovakia the Wednesday after that.
