Torres Believes Spain Can Still Do Well
After suffering humiliation in the opening group match against Netherlands, pressure is on the Spaniards to deliver on the next match against Chile. Fernando Torres, who has been one of the leading goal scorers in the last few major tournaments, says that the Spanish team is much better than the one that lifted the World Cup in 2010. Spain conceded very few goals in the competition, but there have been warning signs that the defence has been deteriorating. They have been considering a lot of goals of late including the 3-0 defeat against Brazil in the Confederations Cup last summer.
As a result, there has been a lot of doubts creeping into the minds of Spain critics. However, Torres has tried to anticipate them by pointing to the quality at the disposal of manager Vicente del Bosque. He says that the players that won the World Cup in 2010 largely remain within the team, while the manager also has several new players to call upon as well. One of them is Diego Costa, who has been called up for the Spain national team despite having already featured for Brazil in a friendly. He is expected to start against Chile as well.
Costa did not make much of an impact against the Netherlands, while Torres came on as a substitute. “There is nothing to say that the team is worse; I would say it is a lot better. Mentally I think the team is prepared for a situation like this. This group has gone through very good and very bad moments together. We know what we are capable of and I don’t think the psychological factor will be a problem. The team has matured with age. There is no reason to change our system. In South Africa we lost the first game and we kept doing the same and were champions,” said Torres.