Vicente del Bosque has reflected that Spain will not alter their approach to try and beat Italy in tonight’s Confederations Cup semi-final.
La Roja face off with the Azzurri in Fortaleza for a place in Sunday’s competition final, where they will play Brazil, who defeated Uruguay in last night’s other semi-final 2-1.
Approaching tonight, Del Bosque has reflected on recent meetings with Italy and determined that the Seleccion won’t be changing its approach.
“Italy and Spain know each other well, we have two recent references in the European Championship games,” the 62-year-old told reporters in his pre-match address.
“We must be wary of Italy because we take as a reference point the game in Danzig a year ago, which we drew 1-1.
“Italy were superior to us in that game and many players had a fantastic performance, above all Emanuele Giaccherini.
“In one game they were superior to us and in the other, in the final, we were the better. We will see what happens tomorrow.
“It’s true Mario Balotelli is an important loss for them, but Italy won’t make a drama out of it. They have other players capable of replacing him.
“Spain has a stable workforce, where the most important addition to talent is the stimulus to keep on winning. Their inexhaustible competitive spirit.
“And that, along with the good fellowship and a tactical organisation, brings us closer to success. We are not going to change much our style or our game for the match against Italy.
“We are not going to find a secret formula. Italy will have to play according to the characteristics of Spain, said without pride, because we will also have to adapt in order to neutralise the virtues that they may try to develop.”
Del Bosque was asked of possible starters for tonight’s game. Roberto Soldado and Cesc Fabregas both returned to training, although there are doubts over the Valencia man’s fitness.
“We will not change much, although we’ll have to see whether the players currently in doubt have fully recovered.
“Iker Casillas? I don’t want to answer that. You’ll see tomorrow whether he plays or not.”
The Coach ignored the possibility of a Spain-Brazil final.
“We all feel the time that we are away from our families after a long season. It is short, but we must maintain the behaviour, suffer and do our best in pursuit of our goal.”
