Spain Team Preview – Overview
Defending champions Spain head into the tournament looking for a threepeat having won the competition in 2008 and 2012 but there are just a few doubts as to whether they are past their best with memories of their disastrous World Cup campaign still lingering in many minds.
This is a different looking Spain side with much of the spine they had in previous tournament wins having retired and been replaced by a younger bunch of players. They are not necessarily lacking in talent but inexperience could be an issue as could the historic Spanish problem of the Catalans and Basque players not getting along. On paper at least they certainly look more vulnerable than when they won the tournament.
Statistics
Best Performance – Winners (2008 & 2012)
Previous Appearances – 9 (1964, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 & 2012)
Qualified – Group C Winner
Qualifying Record
P-10 W-9 D-0 L-1 GF-23 GA-3 PTS-28
Fixtures
Spain vs Czech Republic – Monday 13th June, kickoff 14:00 at Stadium Municipal, Toulouse, Toulouse
Spain vs Turkey – Friday 17th June, kickoff 120:00 at Allianz Riviera, Nice
Croatia vs Spain – Tuesday 21st June, kickoff 20:00 at Matmut Atlantique, Bordeaux
Squad
Manager: Vincente del Bosque
Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas (Porto), David De Gea (Manchester United), Sergio Rico (Sevilla)
Defenders: Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Gerard Pique (Barcelona), Dani Carvajal (Real Madrid), Jordi Alba (Barcelona), Marc Bartra (Barcelona), Cesar Azpilicueta (Chelsea), Mikel San Jose (Athletic Bilbao), Juanfran (Atletico Madrid).
Midfielders: Bruno (Villarreal), Sergio Busquets (Barcelona), Koke (Atletico Madrid), Thiago (Bayern Munich), Andres Iniesta (Barcelona), David Silva (Man City), Pedro (Chelsea), Cesc Fabregas (Chelsea)
Forwards: Aritz Aduriz (Athletic Bilbao), Nolito (Celta Vigo), Alvaro Morata (Juventus), Lucas Vasquez (Real Madrid)
Betting
With it not being certain that Spain win the group many of the markets priced up about them in this tournament are hard to bet on. If they win the group then they will have the draw to go a long way in the competition but as we’ve mentioned in various previews Croatia are a significant hurdle to overcome in order to win the group.
There is the top goalscorer market to bet on and that is very interesting this year. In 2012 Spain played with a false nine with Cesc Fabregas often the man filling the middle position but this year they have named out and out forwards although not Diego Costa surprisingly.
Juventus forward Alvaro Morata is the favourite in this market and he’s likely to start the tournament up front so that is fair enough but the reason Spain struggled in 2014 is teams have worked out how to combat the tiki taka style and play a counter attacking game to offset it and that might be an issue for Morata.
If Spain are to have joy in this tournament I suspect it could come late on in matches when they have passed opponents to death and that could bring one of the substitutes into play in this market. One in particular could be Celta Vigo’s Nolito who has begun his international career strongly with four goals already.
Nolito might go under the radar enough in this tournament to do some damage as defences focus more on the likes of David Silva, Morata and Aritz Aduriz and at 7/1 I think it is worth a small stake to see if Nolito can bag us a couple of goals which might just be enough.
Tips
Back Nolito Top Spain Tournament Goalscorer for a 1/10 stake at 8.00 with Boylesports
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