Dubai: Carles Puyol is confident Spain can return from poor recent tournament form to shine again at this summer’s World Cup in Russia.
La Furia Roja (Red Fury) were the first and only side to win three major tournaments in a row with two European Championships in 2008 and 2012, either side of their first World Cup win in 2010.
Since then however, and coinciding with Barcelona defender Puyol’s international retirement in 2013, the Spaniards failed to get out of the group at the 2014 World Cup and crashed out of the Last 16 at Euro 2016.
“At the last World Cup and Euros the results didn’t come,” said Puyol at the du Football Champions (duFC) finals at Dubai Mall ice rink on Friday.
“But now we have a very strong team combined with youth and very clear ideas from the coach, who has a good philosophy,” he added of Julen Lopetegui, who took over from Vicente Del Bosque in 2016.
Since taking charge, Lopetegui has qualified Spain for the World Cup, topping their qualifying pool at the expense of Italy, while going unbeaten in a total 18 games, including friendlies, the last of which was a 6-1 hammering of Argentina.
“The team is in good hands and the coach has been working very well, so let’s see what physical condition they will be in come the World Cup.
“I feel confident they will play a good role in the World Cup but they are not alone as other teams are also doing things well, so let’s see what happens.”
Puyol, 40, played 100 games for Spain between 2000 and 2013, and was part of both the Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010 winning squads, missing Euro 2012 due to a knee injury.
He also spent his entire club career at Barcelona, winning six La Liga titles and three Champions League honours.
Barca are out of this year’s Champions League after a 4-4 last-eight away-goals-defeat to Roma, but they are just one win away from clinching La Liga.
“It’s a pity what happened in the Champions League,” he added of Barca’s current season. “But despite that they have had a good season.
“They have been playing very well and are unbeaten in the league in I don’t know how many matches (40 games since April 8, 2017, when they last lost to Malaga 2-0 away under former coach Luis Enrique).
“The work of [Ernesto] Valverde in his first year is praiseworthy,” he said of the new coach, who only took over from Enrique last summer.
Puyol was in Dubai with former Brazilian World Cup winning defender Roberto Carlos on Friday to take part in a legends match during the duFC finals at Dubai Mall ice rink. The pair also launched du Sports, a new online portal for customers on ‘My World.’
