Spain and Portugal have big World Cup suspension headaches ahead

World Cup giants Spain and Portugal are walking a disciplinary tightrope ahead of their final group matches this week. Both Iberic sides have started the tournament positively, but could face a headache in the near future with key men in danger of suspension.

Spain got off to the perfect start with a thumping 7-0 victory over Costa Rica last week. And although they were denied a win against Germany courtesy of a late equaliser on Sunday night, they are still in pole position to top Group E, with many critics naming them as the most impressive side in the competition so far.

Portugal, meanwhile, have already confirmed their place in the final 16 thanks to a 3-2 triumph over Ghana and a 2-0 win against Uruguay. They may be tempted to rest of a few of their star men when they face South Korea on Friday as a result.

Indeed, both Spain manager Luis Enrique and Portugal boss Fernando Santos will have to rotate carefully due to the worry of suspension to some of their best players. World Cup rules state that anyone shown two yellow card will face an automatic one-match suspension at this point of proceedings, with a clean slate on bookings not occurring until the quarter-finals.

Luis Enrique’s only worry happens to be arguably his most essential member of the squad in Sergio Busquets. He compared the central midfielder to tennis great Rafael Nadal before the tournament began, and said he “doesn’t see a better player for how we want to operate than Busquets.”

However, the Barcelona veteran was shown a yellow card against Germany, and so the temptation for Luis Enrique may be to bench him for their final group stage game against Japan to prevent any risk of him missing a last-16 clash.

Santos, meanwhile, has even greater problems on his hands, with as many as five of his squad on a yellow card. Danilo, Bruno Fernandes, Ruben Neves, Joao Felix and Ruben Dias have all been in the referee’s book, and there is a very real danger of at least one of them missing a crucial fixture in the near future.

England boss Gareth Southgate, on the other hand, can rest easy in the knowledge that no Three Lions player has been shown a yellow yet. Indeed, they are the only team in the competition yet to get in trouble with the referee, while Saudi Arabia are the worst offenders, with the Middle East nation having picked up eight bookings.

The knockout stages get underway on Saturday, but there is still plenty of drama to play out before then, with only three teams having secured qualification and with a huge number of games left where there is plenty to play for.