The match will determine the group leader in the UEFA Nations League, as well as the team that will play the quarter-final as runner-up, and therefore play the second leg away from home.
According to the Spanish newspaper "Marca", the Spanish coach had to leave out just four players despite 28 being present at the national team's camp in Las Rozas. Alejandro Grimaldo left yesterday evening after a viral infection that had swept through several of the squad over the course of the week.
Álvaro Carreras, Jacobo Ramón, De Frutos and Roberto Fernández will watch the match from the stands of the Riyadh Air Metropolitano.
This quartet includes the fourth goalkeeper, called up because of the problems Raya faced in joining the camp from the start, plus one of the players tipped to make his international debut, the Como centre-back and forwards De Frutos and Roberto Fernández, both of whom got minutes against Prague.
The shirt numbers, though, stole the spotlight. With the return of Mikel Oyarzabal and Lamine Yamal, the question was whether the Barcelona forward would give up the number 19 he usually wears with Spain for the number 10 left vacant by Dani Olmo's injury.
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Yamal did indeed take the number 10 for the clash with England, an iconic number in the history of football worn by legends such as Pelé, Maradona, Messi, Platini, Modrić, Zidane (France) and Zico.
It is not the first time Lamine Yamal has chosen the number 10. He first wore it in October 2024, when Spain suffered numerous absences, Dani Olmo among them.
Back then Yamal wore the number 10 against Denmark in Murcia, a match Spain won 1-0 through a Zubimendi goal.
Three days later the player missed the clash with Serbia in Córdoba, a 3-0 Spain win, through muscular problems. Rodrigo Riquelme took the number 10 in his place.
For Spain, the number 10 is tied to the name of Cesc Fàbregas, who wore it during the national team's first golden era between 2008 and 2012.
Since the current Como coach left the national team after Julen Lopetegui took charge in September 2016, a host of players have taken turns in the shirt before it became Dani Olmo's property.
Thiago Alcântara was the first to wear the number 10 after Fàbregas, and he kept it through the period he played under Luis Enrique.
Plenty of players wore the number in the years that followed. Among them were Marco Asensio during the World Cup in Qatar, Sergio Canales, Carlos Soler, Sergi Roberto, Pedri, and Dani Ceballos, the first to receive it under De la Fuente.
Yeremy Pino wore it too, taking it the same way Riquelme did after an urgent call-up in September 2023, as did Bryan Zaragoza, another drafted in to cover for an injured player.
Nico Williams also makes the list, as does Dani Olmo, who currently holds the number when he is with the national team, alongside Pibelo, Lamine Yamal, Riquelme, Jesús Rodríguez and Víctor Muñoz.
