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Spain have entered the decisive World Cup qualifiers against Greece and Sweden without a key player due to injuries.
Nine players are not available for coach Luis Enrique for matches against Greece on Thursday and Sweden on Sunday.
Spain is in second place in Group B in the last two games, two points behind Sweden and four behind third-placed Greece. Only the team winner will qualify for next year’s Qatar tournament, while the runner-up will have to go through a knockout round.
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Pedri González, Ferran Torres and Marcos Llorente, who helped to take Spain to the finals of the European Championships a few months ago, are among those who could not be called up by Luis Enrique.
Gerard Moreno, Mikel Oyarzabal and Eric García are also missing from the 2020 European Championship.
García was injured while playing in the Spanish league in Barcelona, as well as young striker Ansu Fati, who has been returning to the national team due to another injury for a long time.
Yeremi Pino was another player who was injured and had to be replaced after being called up.
The coach was able to recover some players after recovering from recent injuries, including Pau Torres, José Luis Gayà, Jordi Alba, Álvaro Morata and Dani Olmo.
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Two victories will be enough for Spain to finish in first place in their group and qualify for the World Cup without being dependent on other results.
A draw against Greece will ensure at least second place in the group, which would send Spain to the knockout stages against the other nine UEFA Nations League runners-up and two group winners. The 12 countries will be divided into three sets of four teams and will play next March. Qualifying teams get a home game in the semifinals.
Sweden’s fourth-place win over Georgia on Thursday and Spain’s draw against Greece will put them in first place for the Swedes.
Spain has qualified for every World Cup since 1978, and in 2010 won its only title in South Africa. Russia hosted the host in the last 16 of the 2018 World Cup.
“I can’t imagine a World Cup without Spain,” striker Brahim Diaz said. “We have two finals ahead of us and we need to win them.”
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