Eric Garcia praises Spain’s ‘spectacular’ squad

Eric Garcia hopes to help Spain reach similar heights to that of 2008-2012 era and he thinks that the exciting young talent that La Roja have been working with, alongside more experienced players will make that dream happen.

From that 2008-2012 era

, only Jordi Alba and Sergio Bosquets remain and since then Spain has failed to achieve anything of import in a major tournament. Now with the emergence of the likes of Pedri, Fati and Gavi, Spain seem like an exciting team once again.

"For me, we have a perfect combination between young and old,"

Garcia told SPORT.

"In the end, youngsters continue to learn every day, and other more experienced players try to teach us.

"I think that this combination has many benefits in many aspects, because this group is spectacular.

"We have to be ourselves. We know what we are capable of when we are ourselves, we can compete and beat any team. That is the first step, first Costa Rica and then the rest, with the intention of going far, which is what we want.

"Maybe we don't have a [Lionel] Messi or a Neymar, but we have players who individually contribute a great plus, like Pedri, Gavi, Busquets, [Marco] Asensio at the level he is. Having these players will help us."

Eric Garcia himself may be counted as one of those youngsters since this is his first World Cup outing ever. The Barcelona defender expressed his excitement about featuring in a World Cup for Spain, saying:

"As you get older, you're thinking, 'I wish I could be there one day'. It is a privilege to be able to be here, living an experience that everyone would like to live, so it must be appreciated and valued."

Spain will play Costa Rica in their World Cup opener before facing

and Japan in perhaps the World Cup’s toughest group.

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