Barysaw (Belarus), June 15 (IANS) Coach Vicente Del Bosque celebrated his 100th game in charge of the Spanish football team with a 1-0 win against Belarus at the Borisov Arena to take his side close to qualification for the 2016 European Championship.
In a Group c match, David Silva’s first half goal made the difference on Sunday night as a Spain side with several new faces following last year’s World Cup failure in Brazil, outplayed, but failed to kill off an inferior rival, reports Xinhua.
The feeling is that Spain are still finding their feet after last summer’s disappointments and the decision of players such as Xavi Hernandez to quit the national team. However, Del Bosque has no shortage of talent to fall back on.
“We are in a moment which we had to go through sooner or later,” said Del Bosque.
“There is no need to be pessimistic as we are still reigning European Champions. The World Cup hurt us, but we are not in a dramatic situation. On the contrary, we are in good health and we needed to renew the side,” he added.
Del Bosque highlighted that there is an excellent atmosphere in the squad and that he aimed to base his side on players from Real Madrid and Barcelona.
“Almost all national sides are based on a club team, such as Germany with Bayern Munich, but there are a lot less Spanish players getting a game for Real Madrid and we miss that group to provide leadership for the national side,” he commented, before expressing his worry that Marc Bartra and Pedro Rodriguez are habitual substitutes for Barcelona.
“The style of play is imposed by players from Barca and Madrid… It’s a question of common sense,” he insisted.
If that is Del Bosque’s tactic then he has a major problem given that Spain’s two biggest sides both have foreign players in attack.
Del Bosque urged youngsters Paco Alcacer and Alvaro Morata to step up, especially as regular striker Diego Costa has suffered constant injury problems.
“I hope one or two can step forward, but for the moment they are definite first choice players. We have to think of a player who is first choice with their club,” he insisted.
