"I have a lot of respect for Luis Enrique; Spain will fight for the WC"

Hansi Flick will be one of Spain's biggest obstacles to progress at the World Cup in Qatar. He is the coach of another of the favourites, Germany, with whom 'La Roja' share a place in the group stage. The coach, formerly of Bayern Munich, spoke about Luis Enrique's team, about his own team and about himself ahead of the big international event in an interview with the newspaper 'Marca'.

"Spain is a great football nation and again this year they have an outstanding team with great individual players. I have a lot of respect for Luis Enrique and I am sure he will put together a team that will play for the title. I don't expect anything else. The Spanish national team has always evolved, it has never stopped. And yet they always have their own unique and unmistakable style. That speaks very well of Spain," he said.

"How do you beat Spain? With a bit of luck, we'll see on 27th November (laughs)," he added. On the pressure on the Germans, he said: "The pressure in Germany is always great, the expectations are very high before every tournament. That has less to do with the bad performance in Russia and more to do with the great successes of the past. But we don't feel any external pressure, we have the highest demands on ourselves.

On the subject of whether training with Bayern or with Germany is more difficult, he replied: "Both are challenges that are a lot of fun. However, it is particularly difficult to prepare for the first World Cup in winter without having time for this preparation. But all nations have to deal with these special circumstances this year, so we won't talk too much about this either.