Spanish coach Luis de la Fuente insisted on Wednesday on the importance of Thursday’s match against Scotland, where a victory would “almost open the door to qualification” for Euro 2024.
Second in Group A of the qualifiers, Spain faces Scotland, undefeated leader, on Thursday in Seville (8:45 p.m.) and Norway on Sunday, with the opportunity to secure its place at the Euro in Germany, if it wins these two met.
“Since the end of the September rally, we were already aware of the importance of these two matches, and of the importance of tomorrow’s match, which is decisive,” De la Fuente said at the press conference of pre-match at the Olympic Stadium in Seville.
“The very idea of being able to seal qualification in these two matches shows the importance of these matches,” added the Spanish coach, who believes that his team “is much better” than during the first leg defeat in Glasgow (2-0).
Even if his midfielder Rodri sees it as a sort of revenge, De la Fuente believes that it is “just a football match where we have to fight to win, not a revenge”.
Scottish coach Dave Clarke admits “not remembering” the criticism from the Manchester City community, who then said that the Scots “always waste time, provoke you, fall… For me, it’s not a soccer”.
“It’s a big challenge for us, against a very good team, who won the Nations League,” recalled Dave Clarke, whose men can also validate their qualification for the Euro if they succeed on Thursday.
“We want to do the job (qualify) as soon as possible. If we get there tomorrow that would be great. Otherwise, we will have two other opportunities in November, because we started well with 15 points in five games” summarized the Scottish coach.
“When we played them in March they were in a bit of a transition between coaches after a disappointing World Cup,” Clarke analyzed of the first leg victory.
“We will really have to be very good to obtain a positive result tomorrow” he added, while Spain has won all its matches since the setback in Glasgow.
