{"id":33705,"date":"2026-06-03T02:29:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T02:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/33705\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T02:29:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T02:29:28","slug":"spain-lineup-vs-iraq-predicted-xi-for-2026-world-cup-warm-up-fixture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/33705\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain lineup vs. Iraq: Predicted XI for 2026 World Cup warm-up fixture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin-bottom:11px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/football\/spain\/\" title=\"Spain\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Spain<\/a> sensation <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/lamine-yamal\/\" title=\"Lamine Yamal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lamine Yamal<\/a> is unlikely to feature in Thursday\u2019s friendly fixture against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/football\/iraq\/\" title=\"Iraq\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Iraq<\/a> at the Estadio Municipal de Riazor in A Coruna.<\/p>\n<p>The 18-year-old Barcelona winger has joined up with the national team training camp, but he is still recovering from a hamstring injury that has kept him sidelined since the end of April.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/mikel-merino\/\" title=\"Mikel Merino\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mikel Merino<\/a> recently recovered from a foot injury, but it would be a surprise to see the midfielder selected on Thursday. The same can be said for Nico Williams (groin), while head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/luis-de-la-fuente\/\" title=\"Luis de la Fuente\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Luis de la Fuente<\/a> may also decide to rest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/david-raya\/\" title=\"David Raya\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">David Raya<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/martin-zubimendi\/\" title=\"Martin Zubimendi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Martin Zubimendi<\/a> and Fabian Ruiz following their involvement in last weekend\u2019s Champions League final.<\/p>\n<p>Unai Simon is expected to remain as Spain\u2019s first-choice goalkeeper despite pressure from Raya and Joan Garcia, while Atletico Madrid defender <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/marc-pubill\/\" title=\"Marc Pubill\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marc Pubill<\/a> is the only uncapped player in De La Fuente\u2019s squad and could make his international debut against Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>Pubill could be handed a start at centre-back alongside either Pau Cubarsi, Eric Garcia or Aymeric Laporte, while Pedro Porro and Marc Cucurella could be given the nod to start as full-backs.<\/p>\n<p>Manchester City\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/rodri\/\" title=\"Rodri\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rodri<\/a> will wear the captain\u2019s armband for Spain at the World Cup and is a contender to start in midfield, though he is unlikely to play the full 90 minutes in order to manage his fitness.<\/p>\n<p>Barcelona trio Gavi, Pedri and Dani Olmo, as well as Atletico\u2019s Alex Baena, are all set to compete for the remaining centre-midfield spots, while Mikel Oyarzabal could be handed a start as the central striker in between wingers Yeremy Pino and Ferran Torres.<\/p>\n<p>Spain possible starting lineup:<\/p>\n<p>Simon; Porro, Pubill, Cubarsi, Cucurella; Gavi, Rodri, Pedri; Pino, Oyarzabal, Torres<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spain sensation Lamine Yamal is unlikely to feature in Thursday\u2019s friendly fixture against Iraq at the Estadio Municipal&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[320,322,313,315,318,321,319,100,316,17,314,324,323,317],"class_list":["post-33705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-cycling","tag-epl","tag-football","tag-formula-1","tag-golf","tag-nfl","tag-olympics","tag-premier-league","tag-rugby","tag-spain","tag-sport","tag-sports-mole","tag-teams","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}