Spain captain Rodri praised Argentina star Lionel Messi ahead of the two teams' World Cup final clash.
Spain will meet Argentina on Sunday in the World Cup final, where Rodri will seek to lift the title for the second time in his country's history and for the first time since 2010.
Rodri confirmed in statements reported by ESPN that Spain will not only be facing Messi, saying: "Messi is the greatest player in history. He led his country to win the World Cup in Qatar."
He added: "Argentina is much more than just Messi. We are the two teams that play the best collective football."
He explained: "We have been gradually evolving. We have to continue doing what we are doing because this process has continued for the past five years."
Rodri added : "Our goal when we arrived at this tournament was to win the cup and we were completely confident in our ability to achieve that. We proved that this team is capable of defeating strong opponents."
The Manchester City star added: "We can perform better. I think we played one of our best games as a team ever against France, but against Argentina I think we have to raise our level because they are the world champions, and I am absolutely confident that we can do that."
Spain enters the final after a remarkable rise, having won the Nations League and the European Championship in recent years. Rodri said this rise was built step by step and did not happen overnight.
