­­­­­Sitting at number seven in the world rankings, the home nation are the highest-rated team in the competition, which will be played at Estadio Betero.

The venue has played host to several top-class international hockey events, including the 2015 Hockey World League Semi-Finals and, more recently, provided the home ground for Spain's men's team in the FIH Pro League.

Under the guidance of head coach Adrian Lock, Spain are fulfilling the potential of their talented squad with midfielders Georgia Oliva and Berta Bonastre among the star players.

They are joined in Pool A by Belarus, who stormed to a place in the FIH Series Finals after they dominated proceedings in Wattignies in France at last year's FIH Series Open.

The Belarusians will no doubt still be buoyed by claiming a bronze medal at the 2018 FIH Indoor World Cup in Berlin. 

Completing the Pool A line-up are Canada and Namibia.

Canada were the convincing winners of the 2018 FIH Series Open in Mexican city Salamanca, while Namibia, the lowest-ranked team in the competition at world number 42, qualified as winners of the 2018 FIH Series Open in Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. 

The highest-ranked team in Pool B is African continental champions South Africa.

They qualified by virtue of their world ranking, 15, and will be keen to ensure a place at the FIH Olympic qualifiers after they were not allowed to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games by the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC).

South African qualified through their continental championship but SASCOC ruled that this route was not strong enough.

The team is packed full of quality and experience, including Erin Hunter, Celia Evans, Lilian du Plessis and Dirkie Chamberlain, and can be expected to be among the front-runners in Valencia.

Also in Pool B are Italy, who despite being the lowest-ranked team at the 2018 Women's Hockey World Cup beat the much-fancied China and South Korea in Pool A before losing to eventual winners Netherlands and then India in the crossover round.

Wales and Thailand, a relatively unknown quantity among their opponents, make up the rest of Pool B.

While they cannot qualify because England are the nominated country for Great Britain's Olympic pathway, Wales will be seeking to gain world ranking points and invaluable top-level international experience.

Thailand, meanwhile, qualified by virtue of a second-place finish at the 2018 FIH Series Open event in Singapore, behind Malaysia.

Pool matches are due to run until Saturday (June 22).

They will be followed by crossover games between the second and third-placed teams. 

The winners of the crossovers move through to semi-finals and the pool winners qualify straight through to the semi-finals. 

Fourth-placed teams in each pool will contest the seventh-place play-off.