Ander Herrera has received a first-ever call to the Spanish side, having impressed for his club Manchester United this season. The Spanish midfielder began his career at Real Zaragoza before moving to his hometown club Athletic Bilbao, from where the English club bought him.
Now, a spate of injuries which have affected the national team has led the coach, Julen Lopetegui to call the Spanish midfielder for national duty.
In fact, Herrera has been called in to act as a cover for the injured Saul Niguez of Atletico Madrid as well as midfielders Thiago Alcantara & Javi Martinez of Bayern Munich. Although, there is no dearth of attacking options in the Spanish national team, Lopetegui has still chosen to name the midfielder in the squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Italy and Albania.
Herrera has never been capped by the senior team although he has represented the Under-21 and Under-23 sides between the period 2009-2012. At the age of 27, this diminutive midfielder will look to make up for lost time with the national team if handed the chance to make his debut in the upcoming matches.
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The Spanish squad also saw the inclusion of Jose Callejon, the Napoli midfielder who has been rewarded for his superb early season form in the Serie A this season having scored five league goals from seven appearances already.
The upcoming fixture will be a rematch of the Euro 2016 knockout match (Round of 16), where the Italian side prevailed on the day winning 2-0. At the time Antonio Conte, the current Chelsea coach was in charge of the Azzurri (The Blues). Both the teams since then have changed their national coaches with Jose Lopetegui and Giampiero Ventura, replacing Vicente del Bosque and Antonio Conte respectively.
Herrera was in action at the weekend against Stoke City who held Manchester United to a draw courtesy of a late Joe Allen strike. Speaking to The Telegraph, Herrera spoke about the team’s performances and how the team needed to pick themselves up after stuttering against Watford and Stoke.
“We are very sad because we should have clearly won this game. These are the kind of games we shouldn’t draw at home because we played fantastic”. United’s performance at the weekend was even described by Mourinho as the “best” he has seen the team play this season.
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