The Spanish national team ended its participation in the October international window on Tuesday with a comfortable and well-deserved victory against Serbia. A triumph that allowed them to secure their place in the quarter-finals of the Nations League and that will also go down in history for the starting eleven that Luis de la Fuente lined up at the Nuevo Arcángel in Córdoba.
And for the first time in almost a century, Spain did not appear in an international match without the presence in the starting eleven of a player from FC Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid. The injuries of Lamine Yamal and Dani Caravajal, added to the technical decision to start with Pedri, Pau Cubarsí and Rodrigo Riquelme from the bench, ended up achieving a milestone that has only been seen four times in the 104 years of history of the national team.
- Starting XI for Spain vs Serbia: David Raya (P, Arsenal); Pedro Porro (Tottenham), Vivian (Athletic Club), Laporte (Al-Nassr), Cucurella (Chelsea); Fabián Ruíz (PSG), Zubimendi (Real Sociedad); Oyarzabal (Real Sociedad), Mikel Merino (Real Sociedad), Baena (Villarreal) y Morata (AC Milán).
A fact that had not happened since 1928!
To find a starting eleven for Spain without any player from the three 'big' teams in LaLiga, we have to go back to 1928, when La Roja played the three games of the Olympic Games that year with a team made up only of players from Basque clubs.
Luis de la Fuente's team was without players from Barça, Madrid and Atleti until the 62nd minute of the match, when Pedri González came on to replace Mikel Merino and, almost 20 minutes later, Pau Cubarsí did the same, replacing Fabián Ruíz.
In this way, De la Fuente sets a precedent that will be recorded in the golden books of the national team, since despite not putting on the field any player from the main 'powers' of Spanish football, his team managed to win a resounding victory and showed why they are the current European champions.