Spain handed warning over key star despite record-breaking World Cup performance

Spain don’t look solid between the sticks – Unai Simon would scare the life out of me if I was a Spanish fan.

That is the verdict of European football expert Kevin Hatchard, despite the goalkeeper conceding just once at the World Cup so far.

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The Athletic Bilbao No.1 retained his starting berth for La Roja at the 2026 tournament ahead of two title-winning shot-stoppers.

Spain count Barcelona‘s La Liga champion Joan Garcia and Arsenal‘s Premier League victor David Raya as their high-quality back-ups.

Simon has started all six of his country’s World Cup games and didn’t concede a goal until the quarter-final 2-1 win over Belgium.

However, before Charles De Ketelaere headed home Timothy Castagne’s cross, Simon had already broken Walter Zenga’s World Cup record of 517 consecutive minutes without allowing a goal.

The 29-year-old’s epic run – which started during the last 16 clash with Morocco in Qatar four years ago – stretched for 650 minutes in total.

But Hatchard pinpointed Simon as the weak point in the Spanish side ahead of their crunch semi-final showdown with France on Tuesday, live on talkSPORT.

The winner of the match between the World Cup favourites and the Euro 2024 winners has already been tipped to go on and lift the trophy, with England and Argentina conceding a whopping ten goals across their respective six knockout ties.

Asked about that opinion, Hatchard told talkSPORT’s The Final Word: “I think that it is very boring, but knowing [Didier] Deschamps, he will take one game at a time. And that is why he will be drumming into them, because this is the interesting thing, you are right.

“You look at France and Spain, and you probably say they have been the smoothest teams in the tournament so far.

“So you would feel whoever got through that semi-final would be the favourites. But I do not think by much. I think they would be favourites, but the quality of the four teams left is very, very high, I think. And there are star players in every team.

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“I think with France and Spain – Spain will look at it and think, we beat this French team in the semi-finals of the Euros on the way to winning it. So they will have that confidence.

“They feel like a team to me that has played a little bit within itself, but they have been in control of a lot of games.

“Portugal, I think they pushed it a little bit late, to be honest, because it then became a game of moments.

“I mean, if Bruno Fernandes‘ shot does not hit the side netting and goes in instead, suddenly you are in big, big trouble.”

Unai Simon would scare the life out of me

Spain are the only semi-finalists without a contender for the Golden Boot, with their top scorer Mikel Oyarzabal on four goals.

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Lamine Yamal is yet to open his World Cup account, while Arsenal’s Mikel Merino scored twice late on to beat Portugal and Belgium respectively.

Yet at the other end of the pitch, Hatchard believes Simon represents a risk for Spain ahead of facing Kylian Mbappe and Co.

“So I think the attacking part of the game still has a couple of gears to go, but they have looked solid,” He continued.

“I’ll tell you where I don’t think they look solid: Spain. And I have thought this for a long time.

“Unai Simon, he would scare the life out of me if I was a Spain fan.

“I thought he had a couple of moments against Belgium. One where he lost the ball and [Kevin] De Bruyne could not quite get the shot away from range.

“And the other one where he came flying out, was nowhere near the ball. And they were not able to quite make it count.

“They kind of tried to force the ball across the face of goal. Now, I know Arsenal fans will look at it and think, well, why is David Raya not in the team?

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“Barcelona fans will look at it as well. They will say, where is Joan Garcia? Because he has been superb for them this season.

“But what it does do is it underlines Luis de la Fuente’s approach, the coach, because he has known these guys from the youth levels.

“He has known them for a long, long time, some of them, and he has got that trust; that mutual bond is very, very strong.”