Gavi tipped to be ‘one of the stars of world football’ by Enrique
Spain coach shifts focus to Germany
SPAIN boss Luis Enrique predicted Gavi will be “one of the stars of world football” after the teenager became the youngest World Cup goalscorer since Pele 64 years ago.
Gavi scored Spain’s fifth goal in a 7-0 thrashing of Costa Rica - La Roja’s biggest-ever World Cup victory.
The Barcelona midfielder’s World Cup goal, a brilliant volley with the outside of the foot which went in off a post, came at the age of 18 years and 110 days.
Pele scored against Wales in a 1958 quarter-final at the age of 17 years and 249 days.
Enrique said: “Gavi is a unique player. He is 18 but he has the personality of an experienced player.
“He’s a boy who needs a little bit of calm sometimes. But we are happy to have him in the team and he’s going to be one of the stars of world football.” Gavi became Spain’s youngest goalscorer when he scored against the Czech Republic before his 18th birthday in June.
He is now Spain’s youngest scorer at a World Cup.
Ferran Torres, with a brace, Dani Olmo, Marco Asensio, Carlos Soler and Alvaro Morata were also on target as Costa Rica were crushed.
“We don’t have one striker who scores many goals,” Enrique said. “But we have lots of players who score goals and I have never been worried about the lack of goals.
“We are always the highest scorers in competitions.
“This was a very special game for us and we wanted to start the competition in the best way possible. We don’t start well (in tournaments). We almost never win the first game, but we have
SPAIN coach Luis Enrique expressed happiness for his side’s 7-0 victory over Costa Rica on Wednesday evening.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, the Spanish manager said was the match was great and that his side sought a good start in the tournament unlike their previous tournaments.
The rout was associated with a great performance from the players, Enrique said.
He added that his objective was to improve the performance of the players and qualify for the last-16, stressing that many players were able to score, not just the strikers.
Commenting on their next
managed to break that.” Spain play Germany - surprise 2-1 losers to Japan - on Sunday and could effectively put the fourtime winners out of the tournament.
Asked about that possibility, Enrique said: “I don’t want to speculate on that. Germany is an amazing team.
“We have to be calm, even though we
game against Germany, Enrique said the match would be tough for both sides and that it needs great efforts and concentration.
have had a big victory.
“I don’t think they had one chance. We dominated from the first minute and we created spaces to have good chances.”