{"id":670024,"date":"2026-05-27T07:00:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T11:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=670024"},"modified":"2026-06-05T10:37:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T14:37:38","slug":"spain-projected-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/05\/27\/spain-projected-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain Predicted World Cup Lineup for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the final 26-man squad now <a href=\"https:\/\/rfef.es\/en\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">official<\/a> it is time to look ahead to the Spain predicted World Cup lineup for the 2026 instalment. There are some similar names from the Euros win just two years ago while other positions are sure to change. Let&#8217;s dive into the selected squad and figure out who is most likely to start and in what setup.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/05\/21\/every-chelsea-player-world-cup\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Every Chelsea Player Going to The 2026 World Cup<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Spain Predicted World Cup Lineup for USA\/Mex\/Can 2026<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 600px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBcFP1jSI3\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 4500px; aspect-ratio: 4500\/3000;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<h3>The Squad<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Unai Simon<\/li>\n<li>David Raya<\/li>\n<li>Joan Garcia<\/li>\n<li>Aymeric Laporte<\/li>\n<li>Marc Cucurella<\/li>\n<li>Marcos Llorente<\/li>\n<li>Eric Garcia<\/li>\n<li>Pedro Porro<\/li>\n<li>Alex Grimaldo<\/li>\n<li>Pau Cubarsi<\/li>\n<li>Marc Pubil<\/li>\n<li>Rodri<\/li>\n<li>Fabian Ruiz<\/li>\n<li>Mikel Merino<\/li>\n<li>Pedri<\/li>\n<li>Gavi<\/li>\n<li>Martin Zubimendi<\/li>\n<li>Alex Baena<\/li>\n<li>Ferran Torres<\/li>\n<li>Mikel Oyarzabal<\/li>\n<li>Dani Olmo<\/li>\n<li>Nico Williams<\/li>\n<li>Lamine Yamal<\/li>\n<li>Yeremy Pino<\/li>\n<li>Borja Iglesias<\/li>\n<li>Victor Munoz<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Goalkeeper<\/h3>\n<p>Unai Simon was handed his youth level debuts by De La Fuente and has continued to be the preferred option for the coach at senior level. He is expected to build on his 57 caps after being a regular starter in the Euros win, the Nations League, and the World Cup qualifying process.<\/p>\n<h3>Defence<\/h3>\n<p>On the left side, there is some competition for the starting spot but Chelsea&#8217;s Marc Cucurella has been a standout for his country over the past few seasons, playing a key role in their 2024 tournament win. He will likely set out as the starting left-back for the team.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/05\/25\/spain-world-cup-squad-absence\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Spain World Cup Squad: Biggest Absentees for 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the middle of the defence, Robin Le Normand was one of the main options alongside either Pau Cubarsi or Aymeric Laporte. With Le Normand surprisingly left out of the squad entirely, the starting duo from the last two qualifiers of Cubarsi and Laporte is likely the starting option.<\/p>\n<p>At right back, some competition emerged late in the qualifying process with Marcos Llorente getting the nod but it was Tottenham&#8217;s Pedro Porro who held down the spot for some time. This one is an absolute toss up but Porro could get the nod.<\/p>\n<h3>Midfield<\/h3>\n<p>The manager likes to play with a midfield three, one sitting and two more central and further ahead, the obvious picks when everyone is healthy is a trio using any of Rodri, Fabian Ruiz, Pedri, Gavi. Injuries and rest have seen those pairings rarely featured together but with some of them back fit, we could finallt see a strong midfield three.<\/p>\n<p>Our prediction for the spots would be Rodri slightly deeper, Ruiz with Pedri just ahead.<\/p>\n<h3>Wings<\/h3>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 300px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"6dfbdbe8ed6ff2eb8f8e8ee3c2cef8f4\" image-id=\"wenn6q86byXS\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 6192px; aspect-ratio: 6192\/4128;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>Two of the positions that pick themselves in reality, the wide threat that the Spanish squad possesses is key to De La Fuente&#8217;s setup and maximises the individual brilliance of Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams.<\/p>\n<h3>Striker<\/h3>\n<p>This is another position that will be up to the discretion of the coach as there&#8217;s no clear option. Mikel Oyarzabal has been trusted to start for the country over the past few years as he fits their tactical identity. His main competition would realistically be Ferran Torres who enjoyed a prolific campaign playing as the striker regularly for Barcelona.<\/p>\n<p>Despite that, the former Manchester City man has mostly been used out wide by his national team manager so he may stick with his tried and true option of Oyarzabal.<\/p>\n<h3>Spain Projected World Cup XI<\/h3>\n<p>4-3-3<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>GK &#8211; Unai Simon<\/li>\n<li>LB &#8211; Marc Cucurella<\/li>\n<li>CB &#8211; Pau Cubarsi<\/li>\n<li>CB &#8211; Aymeric Laporte<\/li>\n<li>RB &#8211; Pedro Porro<\/li>\n<li>DM &#8211; Rodri<\/li>\n<li>CM &#8211; Pedri<\/li>\n<li>CM &#8211; Fabian Ruiz<\/li>\n<li>W &#8211; Lamine Yamal<\/li>\n<li>W &#8211; Nico Williams<\/li>\n<li>ST &#8211; Mikel Oyarzabal<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Featured Image Credit<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>IMAGO \/ AOP.Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the final 26-man squad now official it is time to look ahead to the Spain predicted World Cup lineup for the 2026 instalment. There are some similar names from the Euros win just two years ago while other positions are sure to change. Let&#8217;s dive into the selected squad and figure out who is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2013,"featured_media":647425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,30,2132],"tags":[798],"class_list":["post-670024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-world-cup","tag-2026-world-cup"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670024"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":670057,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670024\/revisions\/670057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}