De La Fuentes delighted for Barcelona’s youngster

Spanish national team manager Luis De La Fuentes has revealed that he has no doubt and that he is optimistic that the Barcelona young midfielder Pedri will be back to the top level he was before.

The La Roja head coach stated this in his post-match conference after Spain thrashed Andorra 5-0 on Wednesday where Pedri played 63 minutes.

“He’s going to go back to the level it was before. I have no doubt. I see him with more confidence and security. He is a sure bet and has great talent. You can always expect the best from him; he is very good. I’m very happy with the game he played.” De La Fuentes said.

He also spoke on how it will be difficult to reduce the squad list from 29 to 26 players before deadline day, and he says it will be difficult to discard some players saying that he’s going to continue to count on all of them.

Real Sociedad’s Mikel Oyazarbal’s second half hat-trick was enough to seal the 5-0 win, their first in three straight friendly matches. Real Betis’s Ayoze Perez opened the scoring midway through the first half before Ferran Torres scored the last goal of the game. Spain will face Northern Ireland on Saturday in their last international friendly before traveling out to Germany for Euro 2024.

Luis De La Fuentes replaced Luis Enrique after the 2022 FIFA World Cup where the La Roja were knocked out of the World Cup by Morocco on penalties in the round of 16.

Fuentes started his role in charge of Spain on a rocky note especially after losing to Scotland at Hampden park in the Euro qualification before improving on subsequent results including winning the UEFA Nations League in the summer of 2023. Spain will face Croatia, Albania and the defending champions Italy in the Euros proper.