Luis Enrique watches his players during training
Luis Enrique’s men trained at the University of Qatar with the absence of Asensio as a precaution
Spain trained yesterday for the first time at the facilities of the International University of Qatar, its headquarters in this World Cup. After having a morning of rest after having arrived from Amman at dawn, where they beat Jordan with solvency in the last dress rehearsal before the Doha appointment, Luis Enrique’s men had a recovery session in which Asensio did not jump to green as a precaution after having passed through the gym. The Real Madrid footballer was one of the most outstanding players in the friendly along with Ansu Fati, Gavi and Nico Williams, who once again took advantage of the minutes the Asturian coach gave him and scored La Roja’s third goal. Guillamón was not there either, between cottons in this concentration.
Representatives of the media from the five continents –with a large Spanish-American presence– gathered at the spectacular Qatari academic institution to closely follow a twenty-minute open training session for the Press. A few meters from the field assigned to the Spaniards, the internationals from Argentina were training in parallel, which shares the extensive facility with La Roja, both the area for sports practices and the wings of the buildings in which the rooms have been set up. They are together but not scrambled, because there is enough distance between them for intimacy to prevail. Nearby the players from the Netherlands were also getting ready, although the latter have chosen a different place to sleep.
The work will focus from today on the debut next Wednesday against Costa Rica, in what will be the moment of truth. Yesterday the footballers timidly warmed up in the middle of an intense heat despite the fact that at seven in the evening it was already dark in this corner of the Persian Gulf and, later, the coach ordered three groups to form to make circles in which the ball He moved faster and faster. Some fans waited for the team at one of the entrances to the center, but could not see their own because they arrived at the place through another access and because the training ground was not open to the public. The session did serve to verify the media pull of La Roja, which wants to make up for the fiascos in the World Cups in Brazil and Russia in Qatar.
