FIFA World Cup 2018: David Silva key to unlocking cagey defences
David Silva has been one of the game’s greats, but his World Cup record is nothing to write home about. He will be hoping to put it right on his World Cup swansong.
Country: Spain
Position: Midfielder
World Cup Appearances: 5
World Cup goals: 0
The FIFA World Cup 2010 title was arguably the biggest moment in Spanish football. The tales of their tiki-taka style of football were spreading slowly across the world, but the dominant performance in South Africa turned them into overnight sensations. A lot has changed since then but for midfielder David Silva, the responsibility remains the same. In 2010, he was part of a star-studded midfield and in Russia, he will be marshalling the same midfield with new talents like Isco and Sergio Asensio.
The 32-year old has seen a lot of success in his international career with two European championships and one World Cup title under his belt. He was a favourite of former head coach Vicente Del Bosque and his goals against Russia in the Euro 2008 semifinal and Italy in the Euro 2012 played a huge part in his team’s campaign. On the club front, he joined Manchester City in 2010 and he was instrumental in guiding them to three Premier League titles. Silva is one of the most hard-working play-makers in the sport and with striker Sergio Aguero in front, City formed one of the best partnerships in the league.
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When it comes to the FIFA World Cup 2018 qualifiers, Silva’s influence was quite apparent as the midfielder controlled the game with ease and as many as three Spanish strikers ended up with five or more goals in the group stages. Silva himself was not far behind as he scored five times and was one of the main reasons why Spain were able to qualify so easily in spite of having Italy in their group.
In Russia, Spain are going with a relatively young midfield and the onus will be on Silva to guide them once again. He will have the support of veteran Andres Iniesta, but the Manchester City footballer will surely be the main provider for Diego Costa and Lucas Vasquez when Spain goes on the offensive.