Alvaro Morata expressed his excitement about the future of the Spanish national team after they confirmed their place in the Nations League quarter-finals on Tuesday. 

Morata netted Spain's second goal in their 3-0 win over Serbia, having missed a penalty 11 minutes earlier, with Aymeric Laporte and Alex Baena also on target for La Roja. 

Luis de la Fuente's side have now won 12 of their 15 matches in all competitions this year (D2 L1), equalling their most victories in a single calendar year since 2013. 

Despite missing seven of their regular first-team players, including the likes of Lamine Yamal, Rodri and Dani Olmo, Spain made light work of Dragan Stojkovic's side in Cordoba.

And their latest victory has captain Morata looking forward to the future, with the Milan striker confident of building on their Euro 2024 success. 

"We are in another final stage of a major tournament and that is something to be proud of," captain Morata told Spanish public television TVE.

"It seems easy because we are always there in the final stages but sure it isn't so we have to understand how special it is and give it the proper value it has.

"We have several injured players, we missed them but we have to look at the positives that are young players stepping up.

"What we have created is special, and we have to keep going forward. Spain has an incredible future."

De la Fuente, however, was more measured in his assessment of proceedings. 

The Spain manager watched on as his side registered 30 shots, 10 of which were on target, ending the contest with an expected goals (xG) total of 2.92. 

They also restricted Serbia to just one attempt throughout, though De la Fuente insisted he still wants to see improvements from his players.

"Blessed problem. God willing that it continues like this for a long time. When you have a lot of winning streaks you are closer to losing than winning," De la Fuente said. 

"We are not satisfied. This team is insatiable sportingly, it wants more and more. We do it with so much joy, we already enjoy it so much that it is difficult not to be like that.

"Let's try to see how far we go. When it is not achieved, one day it will not be achieved, because we will have to understand that this is how sport is.

"We will begin another cycle. Whoever wants to beat us will have to do very well."

Spain cruised into the Nations League quarter-finals after Tuesday's comfortable 3-0 victory over Serbia.

Luis de la Fuente's side eased to a routine win in Cordoba, qualifying for the knockout stages with two games to spare after Switzerland's 2-2 draw with Denmark guaranteed Spain a top-two spot in their group.

Aymeric Laporte opened the scoring after just five minutes, heading into the far corner after a well-worked corner routine allowed Pedro Porro space to deliver.

Mikel Merino's header from Alex Baena's cross was denied by the post soon after, before Spain missed a glorious chance to extend their lead after the interval.

Porro's vicious shot was adjudged to have been handled by Veljko Birmancevic, but Alvaro Morata blazed over with a disappointing 54th-minute penalty.

Captain Morata made amends just 11 minutes later, however, finishing with ease into the bottom corner after Fabian Ruiz profited on Serbia's slack attempts to play out from defence.

Further misery followed for Serbia as Strahinja Pavlovic's last-man challenge on Mikel Oyarzabal was upgraded to a red card following a VAR review, before Baena curled the resulting free-kick past Predrag Rajkovic to seal another Roja win.

Data Debrief: Unbeaten run continues for rampant Roja

De la Fuente masterminded Spain's Euro 2024 triumph, with the best team deservedly triumphing at the tournament in Germany, but La Roja's impressive run started well before that.

Spain are now unbeaten in their last 19 matches across all competitions (W17 D2), excluding friendlies, their best such streak since a 29-game run between June 2010 and June 2013 (W24 D5).

This was a typically dominant performance from the hosts, who accumulated 2.9 expected goals (xG) compared to Serbia's meagre 0.37, as the away side struggled throughout.