World Cup warm up: Spain’s disastrous preparation gives Portugal hope

In terms of World Cup drama, you’ll be hard pressed to find anything more sensational in the history of the competition than Spain sacking their head coach one day before the tournament starts.

Real Madrid announced Julen Lopetegui as their new head coach for next season on Tuesday and by Wednesday afternoon the Spanish FA had dismissed 51-year-old from his post with the national team.

Luis Rubialas, the head of the Spanish Football Federation, was only given five minutes warning before Madrid shocked the world and it’s fair to say he did not react favourably to the news.

The Spanish squad, reportedly led by Sergio Ramos, tried to intervene and convince Rubialas against sacking Lopetegui, but they were unsuccessful in their attempts and now former Real Madrid captain Fernando Hierro has been placed in charge for Spain’s World Cup campaign.

It’s a distraction Spain would have rather done without, but how they respond is up to them. Will one of the pre-tournament favourites collapse in Russia or will it bring the group closer together in their pursuit of a second World Cup?

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The news of Lopetegui’s departure has completely dominated the build up to Friday’s Iberian derby between Spain and Portugal and the Euro 2016 champions will hope his sacking will have a negative effect on their opponents.

Portugal were underwhelming at Euro 2016 but still managed to run out as winners, but surely lightning can’t strike twice for Cristiano Ronaldo and Co. Dauntingly, four of the last six European champions have failed to make it out of the group stages in the subsequent World Cup and there is no guarantees they will avoid a similar fate this summer.

The Seleccao have a number of exciting players coming through but Fernando Santos has previously opted to stick with the bulk of the side that reigned supreme at Euro 2016, even leaving Wolves star Ruben Neves out of his squad this summer.

The winner of this match will be expected to go on and top Group B, while the loser may already be on the back foot to finish second with Morocco expected to overcome Iran in the group’s other game.

Portugal against Spain was already earmarked as the standout game in the group phase, but now it is even more eagerly anticipated in the wake of Spain’s shambolic last few days.

Writer Predictions:

Martin Laurence - Portugal 1-2 Spain

Ben McAleer - Portugal 1-2 Spain

Josh Wright - Portugal 0-1 Spain