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Women’s National Team

Montse Tomé: ‘It's a pleasure to coach this team’.

The coach used the press conference to highlight the strength of the opponent that the national team face tomorrow.
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Mon, 28/10/2024 - 17:06

The national team go up against a tough team tomorrow that will not make it easy for them. Italy, fourteenth in the FIFA rankings. Montse Tomé has highlighted the importance of the rival: ‘Italy is a team that is making a lot of progress. They come from a friendly against Malta scoring 5 goals, from a qualification phase for the Euros, for which they have already qualified, with good performances and results. These players are in a league that is progressing a lot and the competitive level is getting higher. We have chosen the perfect opponent for tomorrow.

After the draw against Canada, the Azzurri will be Spain's opponents in the second of their friendlies in this window. The coach will have few opportunities to bring all her players together and test them: ‘It's true that there's a lot of talk about rotation behind closed doors. I don't know what people think. I do know what we have in our heads, what we analyse and expect to see what we want for this national team. We have few FIFA fixtures, there are only 6 more. Usually they don't play together and we are looking for performance and to see them together in the little time we have. We are also analysing the needs for the match.

But undoubtedly the most important thing is how Montse sees her players: ‘The team is good, happy and content. They have trained brilliantly, it's a pleasure to coach them’. She also pointed out that against Italy all 23 could play but that ‘we have to choose 11 and make sure that those are the ones who do what we want to do. We also have to make sure that those who come on later can change the dynamic of the game. I'm calm with the 23 called up to the squad.

The coach, who took advantage of her appearance in front of the press to congratulate the U-17 team who last night reached the semi-finals of the World Cup in the Dominican Republic, also reflected on the coincidence of the Ballon d'Or gala with the national team's training camp: ‘We coaches want to have the players every day at the training camp but it is a luxury to have so many Spanish players nominated for the Ballon d'Or. There should be more Spanish players. We have to accompany those who are leaving, so that they can go and enjoy themselves. They are professionals and when they return they will be at 100%’.

In addition to Monte Tomé, Olga Carmona answered questions from journalists, and expressed herself in the same vein in relation to the candidates to be in the conversation as the best player in the world this 2024: ‘Obviously for us it is not the best option. There are players nominated who have to travel and it's not the best circumstances for them to be at the best level against Italy. We would like it not to clash but it's the way it's happened. I am very happy that all the Spanish players have been nominated, they deserve it and there could even be more. May the best player win’.

The player from Seville was very satisfied with the game and the level of the team during this training camp and in the match against Canada: ‘We are very happy with the way we played in the last match against Canada. I don't know what it looked like from the outside, but we are very happy and we want to continue in that vein. It's true that in the final third of the pitch we struggled a bit, we needed to be a bit more clinical and we would have been able to score a goal. We had a lot of pace and in the end it's very difficult for our opponents to maintain that rhythm with the ball. We want to continue in this vein and we're very happy and looking forward to playing against Italy.

Olga has 48 international caps and three goals to her name, and this season she is playing a lot of minutes for club and country, showing great form: ‘This season I'm getting a lot of minutes. A footballer always wants to play. Both the national team and the club are aware of the minutes and are trying to look after me to maintain this level as long as possible’.

Tomorrow promises to be an intense clash with Italy at the Romeo Menti (18:15h La 1, TVE).

Watch the press conference with Montse Tomé and Olga Carmona again

 

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