Spain's youngsters to draw on Olympics experience for Japan clash

DOHA : Spain may look to their younger players to seal their last-16 spot at the World Cup when they meet Japan on Wednesday, and some of those players including defender Pau Torres will be drawing on their Tokyo Olympics experience to help them prepare.

A number of Spain's under-23 squad from Tokyo are now in Qatar, and remember their semi-final clash with Japan all too well. Spain won 1-0 and eventually took the silver medal, while Japan lost out in the bronze medal match.

"In the semi-final, we needed to go all the way to extra time to win," Torres, who played all six of Spain's games in Tokyo, told Reuters on Tuesday.

The two sides also drew in a friendly before the Games.

"Japan are a very organised team, very consistent in what they do. I always think they have the game under control, they don't get out of the game until the final minutes," Torres said.

"And they are comfortable defending without the ball, they don't need to feel that they have possession to be comfortable. It's going to be a tough game."

Other Spanish players in Qatar who played at the Olympics are striker Marco Asensio, midfielders Pedri and Dani Olmo, and goalkeeper Unai Simon.

After Japan stunned Germany 2-1 in their opening match, they made numerous changes to their side and ended up losing 1-0 to Costa Rica, who had been trashed by Spain 7-0 in their opener.

Torres suggested the side may have let their opening win go to their heads.

"Maybe it was over-confidence, having won the first game, as well as having seen our result against Costa Rica," the defender, who plays for Spanish LaLiga side Villareal, said.

"We made that match look easy, and then we could see that after all, it wasn't easy at all."

Spain could have booked their last 16 spot already but