End of Alejandro Balde's run in the Spain team

Luis de la Fuente has ruled out two new players for tonight's game against Scotland at Hampden Park at 20:45: Alejandro Balde and Dani Olmo, who was struggling with injury. In their places, David García and Borja Iglesias, both sidelined for the first match against Norway, will return.

In this way, Balde sees his streak in the senior Spanish national team interrupted. Since he made his debut on the first day of the group stage of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, he had not missed a single match. He has five appearances to his name: Costa Rica ('26), Germany ('8), Japan ('68), the Round of 16 against Morocco ('22) and the last match against Norway ('90).

His place, therefore, will be taken by Valencia's Jose Luis Gaya, for whom the Blaugrana was a last-minute replacement in the squad for the World Cup, following his injury in training with La Roja. Against Scotland, therefore, the only Barça representative will be Gavi, who has not missed a single game since making his debut on October 6, 2021 in the Nations League semi-final against Italy. He has played 18 consecutive games for the senior side and in only two of them did he not start.

Balde will therefore arrive in Barcelona with a week's rest to prepare for the league game against Elche at the Martínez Valero. This is good news for Xavi, who will be without Araujo and Christensen in defence, as well as Pedri, De Jong and Dembele. The home-grown player has been establishing himself at left-back, although his competitors in that position, Marcos Alonso and Jordi Alba, stayed in Barcelona after not receiving a call-up from Luis de la Fuente, so may get a chance to start.