Gareth Southgate wants a strong performance in Spain as suspensions add opportunities

Gareth Southgate says England will be as competitive as they can when they meet Spain in Seville on Monday.

The Three Lions picked up their first point of the Nations League on Friday when they were held to a draw by Croatia in Rijeka.

And the squad headed straight to Seville on Saturday to start preparations for their return fixture with Spain, who won 2-1 at Wembley last month.

“We’re taking a lot of fans to Seville, so we’ve got to make sure our performance is really good,” said Southgate, whose side will be backed by around 4000 England supporters at the Estadio Benito de Villamarin.

“We’re going to play Spain in Seville, in front of 60,000 people, so we want to be as competitive as we can in every game.

“We lose John [Stones] and Hendo through suspension, so clearly there’s an opportunity for others.

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England during their training session on Sunday at Real Betis FC's facility

“Around the friendly matches, we can be a bit more sensible but for these two games, they’re a lot more difficult and we just don’t have the squad.

“It was different for the game last month with Switzerland but for these games, we’ve got to pick a team which represents the country in the way it should.

“When I can help with the clubs I do and we make sure that the training load is right so that we don’t overburden players with that.”

After Monday’s game, England will be back in action on home soil next month when they face USA (Thursday 15 November) and Croatia (Nations League. Sunday 18 November) in the final games of 2018.