European champion Spain was held to a 1-1 draw by Iraq in \u200ba FIFA World Cup 2026 warm-up in A Coruna on \u200cThursday, with manager Luis de la Fuente \u200bresting several key players before \u2060its final friendly against Peru in Puebla, Mexico, on Monday.<\/p>\n
De la Fuente left out Lamine Yamal, Nico \u200cWilliams, David Raya, Victor Munoz, Marc Cucurella, Pedri, Fabian Ruiz, Martin Zubimendi, Rodri \u200cand Mikel Oyarzabal because of fitness \u200cconcerns, \u2060leaving Spain with a heavily rotated \u2060starting line-up.<\/p>\n
The result was a subdued send-off for Spain on home soil before it travels to North America \u200bon Friday. It will \u200cbegin its World Cup campaign in Group H against Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay.<\/p>\n
Spain struggled to break down an organised \u200cIraq side whose compact low block denied \u200bthe host the rhythm that carried it to the 2024 European Championship \u2060title in Germany.<\/p>\n
The host took the lead in the 16th minute in a quick counter \u200cattack, with Ferran Torres bursting through the middle from midfield into the box before firing past the goalkeeper.<\/p>\n
Iraq equalised through Merchas Doski in the 27th minute with a superb left-footed strike from a difficult angle on \u200cthe left edge of the box, the ball \u200barcing over Barcelona goalkeeper Joan Garcia, who was slightly off his line, and \u2060dropping into the net.<\/p>\n
Torres struck the crossbar in \u2060the 40th minute, but Spain found clear openings hard to come by against \u200ca disciplined opponent which will play only its second World Cup in Group I with \u200bFrance, Senegal and Norway.<\/p>\n
Spain vs Iraq player ratings:<\/p>\n
Spain: Joan Garcia (6.0\/10), Pedro Porro (6.9\/10), Jon Mart\u00edn (6.2\/10), Aymeric Laporte (7.4\/10), Alejandro Grimaldo (6.5\/10), Marc Bernal (6.4\/10), Gavi (6.7\/10), Dani Olmo (7.5\/10), \u00c1lex Baena (7.1\/10), Ferran Torres (8.0\/10), Borja Iglesias (6.6\/10)<\/p>\n
Subs: Gonzalo Garc\u00eda (6.1\/10), Sergio G\u00f3mez (6.5\/10), Jes\u00fas Rodr\u00edguez (6.3\/10), Eric Garc\u00eda (6.2\/10), Y\u00e9remy Pino (6.0\/10), Be\u00f1at Turrientes (6.1\/10), Javi Guerra (6.0\/10), Marc Pubill (6.2\/10), Mikel Merino (6.8\/10), Leo Rom\u00e1n (6.0\/10), Javi Rodr\u00edguez (6.1\/10)<\/p>\n
Iraq: Ahmed Basil (6.3\/10), Hussein Ali (6.8\/10), Akam Hashim (7.0\/10), Zid Tahseen (6.2\/10), Merchas Doski (8.4\/10), Zaid Ismael (6.5\/10), Amir Al-Ammari (6.9\/10), Ibrahim Bayesh (6.6\/10), Marko Farji (6.1\/10), Ali Jasim (6.8\/10), Ali Al-Hamadi (6.4\/10)<\/p>\n
Subs: Jalal Hassan (6.9\/10), Aymen Hussein (6.3\/10), Ahmed Al-Hajjaj (6.1\/10), Rebin Sulaka (5.8\/10), Zidane Iqbal (6.5\/10), Kevin Yakob (6.2\/10), Manaf Younis (6.1\/10), Ahmed Qasem (6.0\/10), Frans Putros (6.1\/10), Youssef Amyn (6.2\/10), Mustafa Saadoon (6.0\/10)<\/p>\n
Published on Jun 05, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European champion Spain was held to a 1-1 draw by Iraq in \u200ba FIFA World Cup 2026 warm-up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16970,934,14928,5853,16972,721,938,4888,16971,5417,1743,17,16856,16963,16966,16965,16967,16968,16964,16969],"class_list":["post-35155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-a-coruna","tag-ferran-torres","tag-group-h","tag-international-football","tag-iraq-football","tag-joan-garcia","tag-lamine-yamal","tag-luis-de-la-fuente","tag-merchas-doski","tag-nico-williams","tag-soccer","tag-spain","tag-spain-vs-iraq","tag-what-was-the-final-score-of-the-world-cup-warm-up-match-between-spain-and-iraq","tag-where-was-spains-final-home-friendly-match-played","tag-which-iraqi-player-equalized-with-a-superb-left-footed-strike","tag-which-key-players-did-luis-de-la-fuente-rest-due-to-fitness-concerns","tag-which-teams-are-in-spains-group-for-the-2026-world-cup","tag-who-scored-the-opening-goal-for-spain-against-iraq","tag-world-cup-2026-friendly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35155","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=35155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}