- Marc Cucurella shines against Bulgaria
- Coach happy with Cucurella’s performance
- Says his team has a lot of firepower
Spain won their opening-round World Cup qualifying match against Bulgaria with a 3-0 win, with Cucurella making it 2-0 with his first international goal. The Chelsea full-back controlled a deflected cross inside the penalty area before unleashing a powerful strike past the Bulgarian goalkeeper.
Winger Mikel Oyarzabal and midfielder Mikel Merino were also on the scoresheet, raising questions about the centre-forward role, but La Roja boss De la Fuente is pleased to have the goals spread out among the squad.
Asked about Cucurella’s spectacular performance in a post-match press conference, the Spain head coach said: “I completely agree. Sometimes those up front shine so much that we overlook other positions. This is the case with Cucurella, whom I congratulate on his first goal for the national team. But just as I mentioned Cucu, I could say the same about [Alejandro] Grimaldo or [Alejandro] Balde, who is injured, poor guy, but who is part of this group of players we manage.”
De la Fuente also added that he isn’t worried about missing a proper number nine in his team, adding: “I’m not at all worried about this because we have players who can score goals, and plenty of them. At the last European Championship, we broke Spain’s all-time record for goals in the final stages, and we did it with ten different scorers from all positions.”
Spain will face Turkey next in their upcoming World Cup qualifying match. Turkey have also won their opening match against Georgia and will look to play Spain on an equal footing on September 8.
