The captain of the Spanish football team, Iker Casillas, has said that the World Cup Champions should not have been made to play in the World Cup qualifying tournament and they should have been given entry into the finals directly, like Neymar‘s Brazil side have. Casillas was talking to the reporters ahead of Spain’s opening World Cup qualifier against Georgia.
Before 2010, the world cup winners didn’t need to participate in the qualifying tournament, but, the system has been changed a bit. Now, each and every team needs to go through the qualifying competition to find a place in the finals.
As per Casillas, if Spain doesn’t make it to the finals, the tournament would be played without the reigning champions. How bizarre it would be! This system is a bit strange. The older system was definitely better in which the reigning champions used to get direct entry into the main tournament. There was no point changing that system.
There are four other teams in the Spain’s group in the qualifying tournament. Those four teams are Georgia, France, Belarus and Finland. Only one team can qualify from this group. The French team is also quite strong and it would not be easy for Spain to top the group. The Spanish team will play against France in its third match. Before that, the team would face Georgia and Belarus.
As per Casillas, the team needs to win the first two matches with a profound margin. A draw just can’t be afforded because it makes you lose two points. The match against France is going to be tough.
So, the team needs to secure 6 points before going into that match. The Spanish skipper thinks that the team has got the capability to win the World Cup for the second consecutive time. He said that the Spanish players have their own playing style and if they play up to their abilities, it would be very hard for any other team to stop them.