Midfielder Thiago Alcantara admitted on Friday that Spain have had a far from perfect preparation for their European Championship campaign.

MADRID, June 11 (Xinhua) -- Midfielder Thiago Alcantara admitted on Friday that Spain have had a far from perfect preparation for their European Championship campaign, with two positive tests for COVID-19, a missed warm-up game and controversy over whether or not the squad should be vaccinated ahead of the tournament.

The problems began last Sunday when FC Barcelona's Sergio Busquets returned a positive test result which meant the players had to go into isolation, with Tuesday's friendly match against Lithuania played by the Under-21 squad instead of the full side.

The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) then informed that defender Diego Llorente had also tested positive for COVID-19, and although subsequent negative tests have shown that was probably a false positive, it caused further uncertainty in the camp.

The squad were finally vaccinated by the Spanish army on Friday morning after several days of debate over whether or not the players should receive the vaccine. However, talking to the press, Thiago said events had not affected the players too much.

"We're used to this situation. It's been a year and a half of living with COVID-19 and we're all used to training individually or collectively," Thiago said.

The midfielder added that although there had been "fear" in the first wave of the pandemic, because there was "uncertainty on a global level and nobody knew what was going to happen, but not here. We have great professionals around us and we comply with all the protocols they ask us to follow."

"We are used to playing under pressure. We're a very young team but used to a high level of competition and there is another very important thing: we all do what the coach [Luis Enrique] asks us to do. We're a hard-working team and we're hungry," added Thiago.

The midfielder, who is now at Liverpool, worked with Luis Enrique in the Barcelona youth system and said the coach had "very clear ideas. He loves us to press hard after losing, possession... and he loves winning, which is what we all want."

"The good thing about Luis is that he is always the same. He's no different depending on who he talks to," he concluded.

Spain kick off their Euro 2020 campaign against Sweden in Seville on Monday. (by Paul Giblin)