Spain boss Vicente del Bosque has defended critics of Spain’s trip across the Atlantic to play Panama in a friendly.
The Spanish Football Federation are set to earn €3m from Wednesday’s fixture at the Estadio Rommel Fernandez, but the La Roja players will be expected to perform in temperatures of over 30 degrees and with 90 per cent humidity.
However, Del Bosque has rejected claims that the game has arrived at an inopportune moment during the season.
“All national teams, not only Spain, play games in similar situations to ours and we owe these countries a lot, so it’s our way of showing our patriotism to the whole world. There are enough reasons to be interested in a game against Panama,” he told a Press conference.
Del Bosque admitted that despite not knowing much about the Panamanian team, he believed they compared to the Honduras side that Spain faced in the 2010 World Cup, with features such as physical strength and organisation.
In addition, the 61-year-old maintained that 2013 was going to be very eventful, not only because of the upcoming World Cup qualifiers but also because the Confederation Cup is taking place in Brazil next June.
“We have objectives in front of us that move us forward every day so we can do our job in the best manner possible.
“We can’t afford to look back at what we’ve done because that won’t help us,” he explained.
