Lopetegui: "Busquets is perfect and Carvajal will be ready in time"

Spain coach, Julen Lopetegui, appeared at a press conference ahead of the friendly against Tunisia this Saturday in Krasnodar. The coach cleared up a couple of lingering doubts over his squad. Those being the fitness issues surrounding Sergio Busquets and Daniel Carvajal.

In regards to Busquets, Lopetegui confirmed that "Sergio has recovered, he's perfect". The Barcelona man had been suffering from acute gastroenteritis but had trained as normal this week and was available for selection.

The coach was also quite clear on Dani Carvajal, who suffered a muscular injury in the final of the Champions League. "With Dani you need to see how desperate he is to play. He needs to complete the stages of his recovery the right way. He wants to take two steps forward instead of one but there's no doubt he will make it. I'm sure of it."

Tunisia

On the match against Tunisia, Lopetegui commented that "it's one more step in our preparation. We chose Tunisia for a reason. They're unbeaten in their last nine matches, drew with Portugal and it's a team which does interesting things. The idea is to give us an extra push forward in our preparation, fine tune the team a little, although we can only make six substitutes."

Lopetegui didn't give any clues as to who will be in his starting eleven against Tunisia and whether it would be the same that would start at the World Cup. Instead he chose to praise Spain's first opponents in the competition, Portugal. "Portugal are the team which won the Euros, no one hands you that, and they've got a talented generation of players. They have one of the best players of this era and a coach with great experience. They're a big team who will force us to play incredibly well. I don't doubt Portugal's strength and quality."

The coach also spoke kindly about the facilities at Krasnodar FC. "The facilities are sensational. There's no room for excuses. For the personalisation and the kindness they've given us, we're been able to work in great conditions."

VAR

VAR was also a topic for today. Lopetegui said it wasn't the time to say whether you like VAR or complain about it. "VAR is here to stay and we have to accept that." Velasco Carballo spoke to the team about how the video referee system would work and noted: "You need to remain focused when there are breaks in play. Portugal are used to it but we aren't and it's important we try to stayed focused to take advantage of the breaks in the correct way."