Pep Guardiola will probably never manage Spain - but his fingerprints are once again all over their blazing red shirts.
Twelve years after his brilliant Barcelona team was the cornerstone of his country's only World Cup success, La Roja appear to be fermenting nicely. Only two of Guardiola’s Manchester City stars - Aymeric Laporte and Rodri - were in Luis Enrique’s team for the blitz of Costa Rica, with former Blues’ winger Ferran Torres on the wing.
But his Catalan philosophy was so obviously on show that Spain might want to think about changing their away shirts to Sky Blue. The ruthless hunger to score as many goals as possible for a start.
Torres scored twice and Dani Olmo, Marco Asensio, Gavi, Soler and Alvaro Morata also found the net as former Real Madrid keeper Keylor Navas endured probably the worst night of his career.
Enrique said: “It was a very special game for us. Normally we’re not good in the first game of the tournament, we never normally win, but we were superb in every aspect of the game. The goals were good, of course, but Costa Rica didn’t have one chance and I like the fact we dominated from the first whistle.”
Spain can potentially send Germany home after two games by beating them on Sunday following their shock 2-1 defeat to Japan.
Enrique added: “We’re going to try to win our next game and not speculate on anything else. Euphoria can be a negative but I don’t see that in my team because there is so much intensity.”
Enrique, of course, inherited the team left behind by Guardiola in Barca - and continued to carry the torch left behind by his former team-mate. Spain made 1,050 passes and had 72 per cent of the ball. Costa Rica were dire.
Rodri can be found bossing midfield at the Etihad. Here he was employed as Laporte’s partner in central defence. Chelsea right-back Cesar Azpilicueta tucked himself inside to allow Jordi Alba free reign to raid down the left - and Spain were good to go.
And while Guardiola has no shortage of midfield brilliance in Manchester, he would have loved the way Barca youngsters Gavi and Pedri looked like a teenage version of Andreas Iniesta and Xavi, with the Nou Camp’s ageing enforcer Sergio Busquets there as a childminder.
It was all over after 30 minutes. Olmo eased a smart finish over Navas after 11 minutes and 10 minutes later Costa Rica’s keeper couldn’t get a strong enough hand on Asensio’s shot.
Torres then scored from the spot after Alba showed that he’s also pretty good at falling over. Torres scored again nine minutes after the break when he smuggled an angled shot past the shell-shocked Navas.
Gavi got the goal he deserved 15 minutes from time with a wonderfully controlled volley off that had a whiff of Xavi. Substitute Soler continued it in the 90th minute, shooting home after Nevas pushed Nico Williams’ cross into his path.
And Morata had come on to finish the job by sweeping home in injury time after a lightning exchange of passes with Soler.
