‘Our core comes from Real Madrid’ – Luis Enrique

In the recently concluded international break, Spain, under their new manager Luis Enrique, were looking dominant as they beat 2018 FIFA World Cup semi-finalists England 2-1 at Wembley before thrashing the finalists at the World Cup, Croatia 6-0 at home. With these wins, they have started their UEFA Nations League on a positive note and will look to continue their dominance.

For the match against Croatia, the former Barcelona manager named as many as six Real Madrid players in his starting XI which included the likes of captain Sergio Ramos, Dani Carvajal, Nacho Fernandez, Isco, Marco Asensio and Dani Ceballos while Sergio Busquets was the lone representative from Barcelona.

Apart from Busquets, only Sergi Roberto made it to the Spanish national team from the Catalan side and Enrique was asked about the lack of Barcelona players in the Spanish squad. He responded that he was not aware of where the players come from and all that matters is that they play for Spain before conceding that Real Madrid players form the core of his Spanish team.

'There were six Real Madrid players in our starting XI? I didn’t know that and I’m not interested, they are Spain’s players, nothing else. I don’t care where they come from. Our core comes from Real Madrid and I’m fine with it, I only see one jersey, Spain’s,' he said.

The Real Madrid players repaid the faith their manager had in them as every single one of them put on some sensational performances in those two matches. Marco Asensio, in particular, ran the show for Spain against Croatia as he was scored a stunning goal and provided as many as three assists in the game.

He could have scored yet another stunner but the ball hit the crossbar and went into the goal after hitting the back of the goalkeeper's head resulting in an own goal.