Training ground spy: Why new Chelsea man didn’t start for Spain

Our secret agents have been skulking around the World Cup training bases over the past few days trying to get their mits on all the insight, skill and bust ups from the participating nations as the knockout round fast approaches.

Here’s the highlights of all the clips they sent back, starting with a Spanish fallout.

Vicente del Bosque rang the changes for Spain’s final game at these finals, but didn’t include new Chelsea star Cesc Fabregas in his midfield to face Australia.

This could be the reason why as the below clip shows the manager quite literally telling the 27-year-old to get on his bike during a training session:

Costa Rica have undoubtedly been the biggest story of the finals to date, beating Uruguay and Italy to book a place in the last 16.

They’re clearly loving World Cup life, as this video of a game of foot-volleyball shows which includes an epic rally and a few daring bicycle kicks. La Sele are 16/5 to beat England in Group D’s finale.

A bit of light relief to finish, albeit on the beach rather than the training field, as MOTD pundit Alan Shearer shows he’d still have some skills if there wasn’t any of that pesky sand around to get in his eyes.

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