8′ There is going to be a brief stoppage in play as Bakasetas is down holding his face following a collision with Garcia on the halfway line. He is now back to his feet and should be fine to continue.
6′ Zeca catches Koke and Spain win a free-kick midway inside the Greece half. The visitors are penned in at present.
4′ The hosts have started brightly and are enjoying the bulk of the early possession. Llorente and Torres are seeing plenty of the ball down the right flank.
2′ CHANCE! Torres breaks down the right-hand side of the field and lofts a ball into the box from the byline. The delivery evades Morata and Olmo cannot quite adjust quickly enough to keep his header under the bar.
1′ Kick-off! The referee, Marco Guida, blows his whistle and Spain get the game kicked off.
The teams are out, and kick-off will soon be upon us here at Nuevo Los Carmenes.
Spain and Greece last faced each other in the 2008 European Championships at Red Bull Arena. Luis Aragones’ team defeated the Blue and White 2-1. Daniel Guiza and Ruben de la Red scored for Spain.
Enrique’s team have been in a rich vein of form in their last twelve fixtures. In fact, aside from one defeat to Ukraine on matchday four of the Nations League, Spain last lost against Russia in their round-of-16 clash during the 2018 World Cup. Greece, meanwhile, have suffered defeat in two of their previous twelve matches. On the road, the away side have kept three clean sheets in that time.
Luis Enrique makes two changes from the Spain side that defeated Germany in their last outing. Llorente and Garcia come into the defence in place of Sergi Roberto and Pau Torres. John van’t Schip, on the other hand, makes five alterations from the Greece line-up that drew with Slovenia. Bakakis, Papadopoulos, Mantalos, Bouchalakis and Masouras replace Mavrias, Pantelis Chatzidiakos, Dimitris Kourbelis, Fortounis and Giakoumakis.
GREECE SUBS: Stefanos Kapino, Sokratis Dioudis, Georgios Kyriakopoulos, Thanasis Androutsos, Stratos Svarnas, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Charalampos Mavrias, Manolis Siopis, Christos Tzolis, Konstantinos Fortounis, Georgios Giakoumakis, Vangelis Pavlidis
SPAIN SUBS: David de Gea, Robert Sanchez, Pedro Porro, Jordi Alba, Diego Llorente, Inigo Martinez, Sergio Busquets, Pedri, Thiago, Fabian Ruiz, Bryan Gil, Mikel Oyarzabal.
GREECE (4-3-3): Odisseas Vlachodimos; Michalis, Bakakis, Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Georgios Tzavellas, Konstantinos Tsimikas; Petros Mantalos, Zeca, Andreas Bouchalakis; Dimitris Limnios, Giorgos Masouras, Anastasios Bakasetas.
SPAIN (4-3-3): Unai Simon; Marcos Llorente, Eric Garcia, Sergio Ramos, Jose Gaya; Sergio Canales, Rodrigo, Koke; Ferran Torres, Dani Olmo, Alvaro Morata.
These teams last played an international match back in November 2020. Since then, no fixtures have been scheduled. Spain enjoyed an emphatic six-goal victory over Germany on matchday six of the Nations League. Greece, on the other hand, played out a goalless draw at home to Slovenia.
Hello and welcome to live match coverage of the World Cup Qualifier in Group B between Spain and Greece at Nuevo Los Carmenes.
10′ Olmo shows quick feet to cut inside from the lest and skip beyond a couple of Greece players before looking to set Morata away in behind. Papadopoulos intercepts the pass and Vlachodimos is called into action to hook the ball to safety.