Among his references to stoicism and healthy food, Luis Enrique has underlined in this World Cup a saying that the Spanish national team can read daily on the walls of its headquarters in Doha about understanding pressure as a privilege.

It is a motivational motto that Billie Jean King, four-time US Open winner, used to use as a reference, and the American tournament has made its own before the Spanish national coach decided to use it for this World Cup with a clear reference during the press conference prior to Thursday's decisive match against Japan.

From 20:00 (Spanish peninsular time with live television broadcast on La 1 and minute-by-minute coverage on this official media) Spain will be playing. All or nothing is at stake in this World Cup. This situation could allow speculation and the outcome of results, considering that a draw or even a lost match is enough to seal their place in the World Cup.

Read Luis Enrique and Unai Simón's statements at the pre-match press conference here.

Luis Enrique and the 26 players have announced that none of that will happen, since they will follow their rules to be true to themselves as if composing a haiku poem, finishing the third and definitive verse of this group phase. They have turned pressure into a privilege along the way and fear into something disposable.

Spain has a winning attitude and they will do so with all the players called up at their full shape, after the injuries that Gavi and Rodrigo suffered. They came back to training with their teammates in the run-up to the game.

The national team has never played against the Japanese in a World Cup before, but up to seven Spanish internationals (Unai Simón, Pau Torres, Eric García, Soler, Asensio, Pedri and Dani Olmo) remember the semi-final at last year's Olympic Games, where Marco scored a goal in extra time.

19 players from the two national teams on Thursday's match met in August last year during the Olympic Games semi-final.

Hajime Moriyasu will be back in the Japanese bench with 12 players from Saitama. They make a tactically disciplined and physically tireless squad, which has just played against Germany and lost against Costa Rica after dominating the match.

It is a national team that will demand the best from the Spanish players. The Spanish internationals already knew which opponents among Croatia, Morocco and Belgium would await them in the round of 16, in case they achieve the objective of finishing top of Group E.

That is the first goal of an adventure that, like the Paths of Oku - the masterpiece of the most famous haiku author Matsuo Bashō - wants to make the national team say on 18 December that it does not want to follow the path of its predecessors, but to find on that day in Doha what they sought.