Spain’s new young guard went head-to-head with Costa Rica’s aging core in the second Group E match of the day at the 2022 World Cup—and the newbies won out, convincingly.
Luis Enrique’s Spain side may be the third-youngest in Qatar, with only Ghana and the United States featuring younger average sides, but it jumped out to a 3–0 lead after half an hour in Qatar, and won 7–0 to jump out to first place in the group, with a supremely comfortable goal differential to boot. Coupled with Germany’s surprise defeat to Japan earlier in the day, things are off to quite a rosy start for La Furia Roja.
The likes of Barcelona’s Pedri, Gavi and Ansu Fati complement more veteran stars like Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Álvaro Morata with hopes of bringing the Spanish back to glory. Ever since winning the World Cup in 2010, this competition has been tough for La Furia Roja. Entering Wednesday, they had won just two of their last seven World Cup games, going out in the group stage in 2014 and falling to host Russia in penalties in the last 16 four years ago. But their first steps in 2022 were quite encouraging.
