Pubill defends his Wembley display after reporter challenges him on Gordon moment

Marc Pubill stepped into Spain’s starting eleven at Wembley under last-minute circumstances and then found himself in a pointed exchange with a reporter once the final whistle had blown. The Atlético Madrid defender replaced Eric García at right-back after García felt discomfort during the warm-up and had to withdraw before kick-off.

Pubill, by the primary account of the match, produced a solid display in a position he knows well from his early career. The friction came afterwards, in the mixed zone, when a journalist raised an opening passage of play in which Anthony Gordon got past him on the outside before pulling the ball back into the area.

The question carried a particular edge given Pubill’s recent positional history. He spent his entire career as a right-back before Diego Simeone redeployed him as a centre-back at Atlético Madrid, meaning his appearance on the flank for Spain was something of a throwback assignment — and one that came against a dangerous England forward line at short notice.

Rather than accept the reporter’s framing, Pubill pushed back. He first asked the journalist to repeat the question, then challenged the description of what had actually happened during that opening sequence. The two went back and forth before the reporter restated his account: Gordon had gone past Pubill on the outside and cut the ball back into the area.

Pubill did not concede the point. When pressed on whether the moment had made him fear a long evening, he said plainly that it had not.

It was a brief, low-key confrontation rather than a heated row, but it stood out in an otherwise routine round of post-match interviews. For a player who has had to demonstrate his adaptability across two positions in the space of a single season — at both club and international level — it was a reminder that scrutiny follows every touch, however isolated the incident.