Ahead of their international friendly against Netherlands, Spain manager Vicente Del Bosque said that the focus of his side would not rest on taking revenge from their defeat in last yeara s World Cup.
Speaking in a press conference before the match, Del Bosque said, a “I am not thirsting for revenge against the Netherlands. The Netherlands have been on the podium in the last two World Cups and Spain, who have dominated during recent years, are giving the impression of having dipped in the last few months.
“In that dip, though, we have scored 14 goals and conceded three. We have played 31 games in four series of qualifiers with a balance of 28 wins, two draws and one defeat. I don’t think that is bad.
“Although I recognise that after the World Cup we haven’t played well, I can see good things. We are going in the right direction.”
If it can be recalled, Holland beat Spain 5-1 in the 2014 Brazil World Cup, which started the end of the campaign for the Spaniards. Although Spain have been doing better than Netherlands in the Euro qualifiers, with Spain on top of their group while the Dutch only in 3rd place, Del Bosque has had to face criticism of his team selections.
Even Del Bosquea s selection of Real Madrida s Iker Casillas in goal over the in-form Manchester United keeper David de Gea for the narrow win against Ukraine last week was questioned. However, the latter is likely to start the game against the Dutchmen, with the Spain manager saying that he is likely to field a completely different side to the one that played last week.
Del Bosque also said that Spain should not be satisfied with whatever they have achieved so far, and should be hungry for more. He said, a We have a very mature National squad but we shouldn’t be satisfied with what we’ve done. We need to be more rebellious.a
Touching on the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, Del Bosque said, a With the exception of England and Slovakia, the rest of us are still competing for a place at next year’s tournament to be held in France. We have maintained decent figures and we are on the right path but we have 5 games left to play.a
How Spain play in this game would go a long way in deciding the kind of media attention his team are likely to get, with Del Bosque saying, a Before the criticism was always positive and now there is a lot of emphasis on the negative.a
If the Spaniards can take revenge for their World Cup defeat, and in a convincing way, the press would certainly be off their back and might even go back to positive criticism.