The Spanish national side can continue its remarkable recovery from a pre-tournament wobble by beating Morocco this evening and earning a better result than their Iberian neighbours do against Iran.
Fernando Hierro’s men earned a hard-fought win over Iran in their last tie and travel to Kaliningrad for the final game of their group campaign.
Their opponents, Herve Renard Morocco, might have already been eliminated from the tournament as such but ran the Portuguese close last time, having had the best of their opener before Iran stole the game with a late winner.
Team News
Spain have only minor injury concerns to deal with; back-up ‘keeper Pepe Reina and Nacho Monreal are doubts with a couple of knocks but no first-choice players are unavailable for selection.
Morocco, likewise, have little to worry about on that front. Nordin Amrabat has been an ongoing concern after he suffered a nasty concussion on their opening tie but he’s expected to run the gauntlet once more.
Otherwise, they’ve got a full bill of health.
Stats
These sides have met only twice before, in each leg of a two-legged play-off for qualification for the World Cup in 1962. Spain won both those ties.
Diego Costa has bagged a remarkable nine goals in his last five international appearances, including three in his two games in this tournament.
Prediction
A hearty Spanish win. La Roja have shown flashes of some of the best football the tournament has seen and don’t look to have been influenced by the swirl of press chatter that followed them following the Lopetegui saga.
They’re fancied to get the win they need to put them through the group stages as winners.
The Moroccans have shown that they’re not a bad outfit in their two games to date and shouldn’t make it a stroll on the Kaliningrad promenade, but the Spaniards should
2-0 to the 2010 winners Spain.
