Luis de la Fuente was impressed by Spain's debutants in their 1-1 draw with Iraq, and noted he already has a starting line-up in mind for their World Cup opener.

Spain's final match on home soil before the tournament saw them held to a 1-1 draw by Iraq, with neither side able to find a winner in the second half.

Ferran Torres had given La Roja the lead early on, but a stunning, tight-angled shot from Merchas Doski just before the half-hour mark denied Spain a win.

Spain still have one more pre-tournament friendly to go – they face Peru in Mexico next week – and despite a disappointing result, De la Fuente insisted he was impressed by what he saw, especially from his young players.

"They all [the debutants] deserved it," he said. "The match gave all the promising youngsters the opportunity to make their debuts; they earned it.

"They helped us tremendously; they are players for the future who we will surely see in the senior squad soon. Another objective has been achieved.

"We don't see ourselves as just friendly matches. We had certain objectives against Iraq, but we also needed to meet certain physical requirements.

"My plan remains the same; we'll see how things develop in the coming days. There are 11 days until the opening match and another friendly in four. We've already decided on the goalkeeper and 10 other players."

Another positive for Spain was Mikel Merino making a return from injury to feature in the second half.

Merino, who was Spain's joint-top scorer in World Cup qualifying with six goals, came on in the 68th minute, though he managed just 23 touches in a disjointed half.

"The minutes Mikel has played are good news," De la Fuente added. "He needs to continue building up his workload, but he's handling it well, and we're very happy.

"But other players are going to contribute a lot to us in this championship and in the future."