Euro 2016: Spain Key Players

Here are the key players of Spain National Football Team.

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Iker Casillas

ikerrrOn 5 September 2015, Casillas kept a clean sheet in his 100th game as Spain’s captain, a 2–0 UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying win over Slovakia at the Estadio Carlos Tartiere in Oviedo.He equalled the Latvian Vitālijs Astafjevs’ European record of 166 caps on 27 March 2016 by playing in a friendly against Romania.

On 31 May, he was named to Vicente Del Bosque’s final 23-man Spain squad for UEFA Euro 2016.The following day, he became the most-capped European player by playing in a 6–1 friendly win over South Korea in Salzburg.

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Gerard Piqué

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At the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, Piqué was the third of Spain’s seven successful takers in a 7–6 shootout win over Italy at the semi-final stage. On 30 June 2013, Piqué was sent off during the final against Brazil. He received a straight red card in the 68th minute for a violent tackle on recently signed Barcelona team-mate Neymar. The match finished 3–0 to Brazil, ending Spain’s world record 29 match unbeaten run in competitive internationals.

Piqué became unpopular with some elements of the Spanish support, due to his taunting of Barcelona’s rivals Real Madrid. A friendly against England in November 2015 was moved from Real’s Bernabeu Stadium to Alicante in order to avoid crowd abuse towards him.

At the UEFA Euro 2016 opening group game for Spain, Piqué scored his fifth goal for his country, a late header in a 1–0 victory against the Czech Republic.

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David de Gea

david-de-gea_3175501bOn 13 May 2014, De Gea was selected in Spain’s 30-man provisional squad for the 2014 World Cup, and later made the final squad. He made his first senior international appearance against El Salvador in a 2–0 friendly victory on 8 June in preparation for the tournament, replacing Iker Casillas for the last seven minutes of the game at the FedEx Field in Washington, D.C. As third-choice goalkeeper behind Casillas and Pepe Reina, De Gea was the only member of the squad not to feature at that World Cup, in which Spain were eliminated in the group stage. On 4 September 2014, he made his first start for Spain, playing the whole 90 minutes against France in a Paris friendly and conceding a goal from Loïc Rémy to lose 1–0.He played his first competitive international on his third cap on 12 October, keeping a clean sheet in a 4–0 win away to Luxembourg in UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying.

He has been tipped by many to succeed Iker Casillas as the long-term number one goalkeeper,including Casillas himself.On 31 May 2016, he was named to Vicente Del Bosque’s final 23-man Spanish squad for UEFA Euro 2016.He started their opening game against the Czech Republic in Toulouse, keeping a clean sheet in a 1–0 victory.

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Álvaro Morata

FBL-ITA-SERIEA-JUVENTUS-PARMAOn 7 November 2014, Morata was called up to full side manager Vicente del Bosque’s squad for matches against Belarus and Germany.He made his debut against the former on the 15th, replacing Isco for the last ten minutes of a 3–0 win in Huelva for the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers; in the same competition, on 27 March 2015, he scored his first senior international goal, the only in a victory over Ukraine in Seville.

Selected for the finals in France,Morata started and scored a brace in a 3–0 group stage win against Turkey in Nice.

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