At five o'clock in the afternoon. It will take place at five o'clock in the afternoon and they will be dressed in red. On 23 November, the Spanish national team begins to shape the second star they want achieve by winning this tournament.
Luis Enrique and his team will play against Costa Rica (17:00 Spanish peninsular time live on La 1 TVE and minute-by-minute through this official media) in an unprecedented match in the history of the World Cup. This match will be remembered for the upcoming generations as the beginning of the conquest.
Looking back, the beginning of the Spanish national team at a World Cup has never been easy (only four wins in 15 tournaments, the last one 16 years ago). This is the reason why captain Sergio Busquets, who will officially equal the national record for World Cup a matches on Wednesday, has already pointed out that the debut might be the most difficult match at a World Cup finals.
In their debut, they play against Costa Rica, the 31st-ranked team in the FIFA rankings. It is the national team of Keylor Navas, Bryan Oviedo, Joel Campbell and Bryan Ruiz, who are over 30 years and have played five times in the last six World Cups. Due to their experience, this match can be very challenging.
Listen to what national coach Luis Enrique and captain Sergio Busquets say before the match.
Costa Rican players led by the Colombian coach Luis Fernando Suárez contrast with the youth of the Spanish players - the third youngest squad of the 32 participating national teams - the Spanish national team will have the 26 players today in the best conditions after having included in the list the left-back Alejandro Balde to replace José Luis Gayà.
The national coach has ensured that the cheerful, dominant, combinative, defensively solid and tireless style of pressing and searching for the goal will be kept in each World Cup matches with this touchstone as the first demonstration.
The Spanish national team has won twice matches and drawn once against Costa Rica in the three previous matches, being friendly matches all of them.
With the presence of HM Felipe VI in the box and about 24 degrees at the start of the match, an Asian referee Emirati Mohammed Abdullah Hassan Mohamed will be in charge of Spain's World Cup debut for the first time.
In short, everything remains to be seen on the pitch of Doha's Al Thumama stadium, whose shape is similar to the gahfiya, a traditional Arab headdress worn in Qatar. Meanwhile 47 million Spaniards seven thousand kilometres away are dreaming of seeing the national crowned at the end of the World Cup.