Morata and Costa
Diego Costa insists Alvaro Morata will be missed by the Spanish national team and hopes the Chelsea striker regains his form in time for the World Cup this summer.
Morata ended a run of 13 games without a goal in all competitions with a well taken effort in Sunday’s FA Cup quarter final victory against Leicester City, but it came too late to earn him a spot in Julen Lopetegui’s squad ahead of the upcoming friendlies against Germany and Argentina.
Morata replaced Costa at Stamford Bridge in the summer after Antonio Conte’s public falling out with the Brazil-born striker but he insists he bears no ill feeling towards the former Real Madrid star.
He said: ‘I do not feel more liberated, I miss him, we get along very well. Nothing has been easy in my life.
‘Morata is a great person, a great footballer, he is having a bad time but he is starting to score again. I want him, me and everyone if possible.
‘The pressure is the same, being a forward of the National Team represents a lot.’
Costa has scored six times in 16 appearances for the Spanish national team but will be making his first appearance for his country since last June.
He added: ‘In the national team, when you do not score, you always have the pressure because it is not any selection, it is Spain.
‘It’s normal that it will get in your head a bit. You have to have peace of mind, then things will turn out well, now they are going well for me, I hope it continues like this.’