Spain boss Luis de la Fuente admits Lamine Yamal has not but carried out to expectations at this World Cup however is engaged on holding a lid on the Barcelona star’s feelings forward of tonight’s quarter-final clash with Belgium.
Yamal got here into the event wanting full health after sustaining a hamstring damage in April and has seemed rusty regardless of Spain’s seamless development to the final eight.
De la Fuente acknowledges there may be extra to come back from the supremely gifted 18-year-old however is raring to not place an excessive amount of strain on his younger shoulders.
He stated: “If you happen to see Lamine’s motivation, it is rather harmful for the opponents, however we should calm him down in order that he doesn’t grow to be anxious. The very best is but to come back as a result of he has not taken the step of brilliance that we count on.
“The opposite day [the win over Portugal] was a state of affairs the place he needed to work in defence till he grew to become drained and had to get replaced. It was an incredible train in maturity and we at the moment are ready for his offensive stage.”
Lamine Yamal stats on the 2026 World Cup
| Video games | Minutes | Pictures | Pictures on Goal | Targets | Assists | |
| Lamine Yamal | 5 | 352 | 17 | 8 | 1 | 0 |
Spain focusing solely on Belgium
Spain are overwhelming favourites to beat Belgium and set up a mouthwatering semi-final with France however De la Fuente was fast to stipulate the dangers with wanting too far forward.
He added: ”Solely the match towards Belgium is in our heads. The followers can speak about it, however as professionals we are able to’t. Attending to the quarter-finals isn’t simple in any respect, on the World Cup no-one offers you something, all the pieces is achieved primarily based on a whole lot of work and doing issues nicely, having wholesome gamers, selecting between 26 soccer gamers… we take into consideration the longer term though immediacy is what our work exhibits.”
Spain are anticipated to area an unchanged line-up however De la Fuente conceded it was not simple to pick out 11 gamers from such a gifted squad.
“Deciding on a line-up is probably the most troublesome job,” he stated, “as a result of every recreation is totally different and we now have gamers of a really excessive stage. [But] the gamers don’t have the identical traits and whatever the stage they’ve it’s performed by analysing the opponent and from there we choose an 11 to play nicely towards the opponent. If a change happens it’s not a punishment for the participant who’s ignored.”
