La Roja are unbeaten in their last 10 games, though Luis de la Fuente is unlikely to start with star man Lamine Yamal, as he continues to recover from the injury sustained whilst playing for Barcelona.
Cape Verde are hoping for a fourth straight victory, though the odds are stacked against them pulling off one of the surprises of this, or any other, World Cup.
In their last six matches in all competitions, they've won three and lost three, scoring 10 and conceding six, whilst Spain have won three and drawn three of their last six, scoring 13 and conceding four.
Mikel Oyarzabal remains the man in form for the Spanish, having top-scored with three goals already this year, but he and his teammates will need to work hard to improve upon their country's showing in this competition.
Spain have performed poorly at the last few World Cups
That's because, aside from winning the tournament in 2010, they've not gone further than the last 16 since then, and have won only one of their last six games at the finals, drawing four and losing the other.
Furthermore, that 2010 triumph was the only time in the last 14 WC tournaments that Spain have made it as far as the semi-final stage, with expectation evidently weighing heavily upon them previously.
Cape Verde, who are ranked 69th in the world, are at the World Cup for the first time ever, and will start the match full of confidence, given their two wins in warm-up games, as well as six victories from their last seven qualifiers.
Were they to pull off an almighty shock, and they've only lost once in 13 games against European opposition (W5, D7), they would become just the second CAF (Confederation of African Football) side to beat the Spanish after Nigeria way back in 1998.
Goals can certainly be expected in the game, with 14 of the last 17 matches involving La Roja seeing at least 2.5 goals.
Oyarzabal in great form
Oyarzabal is bound to be in amongst it again, with the Real Sociedad man being one of only three players in qualifying to have 10 or more goal contributions (6G, 4A).
Though he potentially won't have the services of Lamine for much of the game, there's still an outside chance that Nico Williams will be fit enough to start, and his speed and delivery are bound to cause problems for the Cape Verde back line.
Were the Athletic Club man also not to be risked, at least from the start, expect Alex Baena to play an important role for De la Fuente.
At the opposite end of the pitch, the tournament minnows will be looking to Dailon Livramento to have the whole of the football world sitting up and taking notice, as he attempts to add to a goalscoring tally that has seen him find the net in four of his last five qualifiers, three of which opened the scoring.
The country's all-time top goalscorer, Ryan Mendes, is also likely to start, even at 36 years of age, and if he can add to his 22 goals in 97 games, his legacy will last even longer into the future.
Odds stacked against minnows
It's worth pointing out, however, that Spain have been given an incredible 87% chance of winning this game, putting the size of the task for Cape Verde into sharp focus.
If and when they do get control of the ball, they'll have to be willing to break at pace whilst also shoring up their defence, given how well the Spanish could do against them on the counter-attack.
With Rodri, Pedri and Fabian Ruiz all offering something different in what is one of the strongest midfields in the competition, their opponents might actually find themselves chasing shadows for the majority of the 90+ minutes.
Indeed, despite recent disappointments in this tournament, La Roja are still ranked as the second-best team in this edition. They come into it as European champions and will want to get off to the best possible start before they play both Uruguay and Saudi Arabia.
If they can find their groove quickly, the score could be even more damaging than Germany's 7-1 mauling of Curacao on Sunday.
As a spectacle, that won't satisfy anyone other than those of a Spanish persuasion, but those teams with dreams of genuinely winning the game's greatest prize aren't competing for the populist vote.
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Jason Pettigrove has been the features writer for Flashscore since 2025, utilising Opta data to form the basis of his articles. He has previously worked for high profile football clubs, news and media outlets, both in print and digital, and can usually be found watching FC Barcelona when time permits.
