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Pau Cubarsi

Cubarsi headlines Spain squad for Paris Olympics

The 17-year-old centre-back was named in Luis de la Fuente's provisional squad for Euro 2024 but was cut ahead of La Roja's final party being announced.

He is joined by Eric Garcia, who spent last season on loan at Girona, while Fermin Lopez and Alex Baena are included despite being at Euro 2024 with the senior team.

Head coach Santi Denia was able to select players under the age of 23, with Manchester City's Sergio Gomez, Sporting CP's Abel Ruiz and Real Betis left-back Juan Miranda taking the three overage spots.

The likes of Yamal, Williams and Pedri were eligible but have not been chosen in what is initially a 22-man squad but must be cut to 18 ahead of the Games.

Spain took silver at the delayed 2020 Games in Tokyo three years ago, losing 2-1 in extra time to Brazil in the gold medal match.

For this year's competition, they have been drawn alongside Uzbekistan, Egypt and the Dominican Republic in Group C, facing the former in their first match on July 24.

Provisional Spain squad: Arnau Tenas (Paris Saint-Germain), Joan Garcia (Espanyol), Alejandro Iturbe (Atletico Madrid), Marc Pubill (Almeria), Juanlu Sanchez (Sevilla), Eric Garcia (Barcelona), Cristhian Mosquera (Valencia), Pau Cubarsi (Barcelona), Jon Pacheco (Real Sociedad), Juan Miranda (Real Betis), Miguel Gutierrez (Girona), Adrian Bernabe (Parma), Benat Turrientes (Real Sociedad), Alex Baena (Villarreal), Pablo Barrios (Atletico Madrid), Aimar Oroz (Osasuna), Sergio Gomez (Manchester City), Fermin Lopez (Barcelona), Diego Lopez (Valencia), Sergio Camello (Rayo Vallecano), Samu Omorodion (Atletico Madrid), Abel Ruiz (Braga).

Japan 0-3 Spain: Fermin stunners send La Roja into Olympic semi-finals

Barcelona youngster Fermin, who played a bit-part role as Spain won Euro 2024, slammed in a sublime strike in each half of Friday's quarter-final in Lyon.

Having beat the despairing dive of Leo Kokubo with a long-range left-footed effort in the 11th minute, Fermin took centre stage again midway through the second half as he lashed in with an expertly controlled volley after taking the ball down on his chest.

Matters could have been vastly different had a first-half equaliser for Japan been allowed to stand, however.

Mao Hosoya brilliantly spun Pau Cubarsi to arrow home, only for the goal to be disallowed for the forward's right foot to have been millimetres offside as he tussled with the Spanish centre-back.

Hosoya was denied by Spain goalkeeper Arnau Tenas late on, but La Roja added gloss to an ultimately convincing win when captain Abel Ruiz poked in from close range after Japan failed to clear their lines from a set-piece.

Kota Takai struck the crossbar in one last fruitless attempt for Japan, and Spain will now ready themselves for a last-four tie with Morocco.

Data Debrief: Fabulous Fermin

Spain have one of the strongest squads at the tournament, and Fermin is possibly the standout.

He showed all his quality with his fantastic long-range finishes, which came from a combined expected goals (xG) of just 0.03.

Fermin had five shots in total, and hit the target with four of them, as he moved into joint-second place in the goalscoring charts with three, behind Morocco's Soufiane Rahimi.