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The Irritatingly Impressive Starting XI That Spain Are NOT Taking To Euro 2016

Gary Reilly
By Gary Reilly
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We've already looked at the ludicrous depth of the French squad but since Spain named their squad today it seemed only right that we would offer them the same privilege. It must be said that this is no longer the height of the Spanish era of world football domination but that's not to say we can't still envy them a little bit.

Vicente Del Bosque's side head into Euro 2016 as one of the three likely winners. However, most bookies have them just shy of France and Germany in terms of the favourites tag. There's few fans across the continent who'll be writing them off however, and you only need to see the kind of players that they've been able to leave behind to know that they're going to be a serious threat to Ireland's goal of European dominance this summer.

If you haven't seen it, here's the 25 ma squad that Del Bosque has named.

The headline news is that Diego Costa has been left out. Now that he's out of the loop in London, Costa's Spanish credentials have taken a significant nose dive and his particular brand of being an awkward fecker up front hasn't been enough to edge out the likes of Nolito or Alvaro Morata.

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Similarly, Fernando Torres' ultimate redemption hasn't quite come to fruition, while Paco Alcacer can feel slightly hard done by considering he was Spain's top scorer in qualifying.

Further back the Premier League trio of Santi Cazorla, Juan Mata and Ander Herrera can't break into a packed attacking midfield line-up. We'd also like to offer special mention to Gabi who has been nothing short of wonderful for Atletico Madrid but, at 32, has yet to receive a senior cap for Spain.

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One of the most contentious calls from Del Bosque was the decision to call up Marc Bartra at the expense of Bayern Munich's Javi Martinez and Sociedad's Inigo Martinez. Spain are plenty stocked at right back with Hector Bellerín yet to graduate from the u21s while on the other side, we've decided to opt for Bayern's Juan Bernat who is highly unlikely to edge out Jordi Alba or Cesar Azpilicueta any time soon.

In goal, Spain don't have the wealth of options that they once boasted but although Sergio Asenjo is finally starting to fulfill his early promise, we've decided to give the goalkeeping spot to West Ham's Adrián simply for the fact that he's managed to keep the best substitute goalkeeper in the Premier League at bay over the course of the season.

As a comparison, here's the French team that we put together that's going to have to watch this summer's festivities like the rest of us.

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If we had to put them head to head, we'd side with the Spanish but it's a very marginal call.

 

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