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| Tuesday, 29 June 2010 01:43 |
Villa expects tough test against PortugalSpanish striker puts team first On the eve of the their Round of Sixteen contest, Spain are not looking past Portugal as the incumbent European champions feel it will take a complete team effort to dispatch their Iberian cousins.
It will be a match for the ages, at least that's what the organiser's hope it will be, as the world's number #2 and number #3 ranked teams are set to do battle in Cape Town. The Spanish side got their World Cup campain off to a weary start, but have since started to resemble the side that won the continental championship two years ago. Spain understand that they will have to be completely focused if they want to move onto the quarter-finals and know full well that Portugal are an immense obstacle standing in their way. "It would be very attractive for us to win against Portugal, just as it will be for them to beat Spain," said Villa. "Whoever loses will goes home and it doesn't get any more attractive than this." "(Portugal) will not be too offensive nor will they be too defensive.They have very good players on defence - it is one of their strong points. We will have to try and play our attacking game with a lot of ball possession. If we create the chances like we did against Honduras and Switzerland, we will score." Villa leads the Spanish side with three goals, one short of tournament co-leaders Gonzalo Higuain and Robert Vittek, but feels that his goals will not count for anything if Spain do not win the match in the end. "The objective is to help the team reach the final. The individual awards are nice, and are also celebrated by the collective, but my main preoccupation is to help the team reach the final." It's 50/50Defender Capdevila echoed his team-mate's sentiments and feels that there are no favourites between the two and adds that Portugal are not just Cristiano Ronaldo."We know what we have to do, but we won't say what that is in order to not lose our composure. We know what Portugal's strong points are and where we can cause them problems," said the Villareal player "They are a complete team, in all aspects. The have very strong potential and, as a result, we must respect them. There is a 50% possibility for either side (to advance)." As for Portugal's biggest offensive threat, Capdevila insists that it will take the entire defensive sector to stop the former Wolrd Footballer of the Year. "It will be complicated as they have one of the best players in the world (Cristiano Ronaldo). He will move to all the attacking zones and all of the defencemen will be to be attentive to his movements." "The best way to stop him is a collective effort. We will have to be careful, but not only with him, also the players who come in the second line of attack." by Marco Pereira |
We can be sucessfull playing on the wings and doing diagonal moves (Ronaldo, Simao).
This can be Liedson game, that's my personal bet!
Ambition, passion, fury, control, attention... victory!
Make us happy and proud boys!
Força Portugal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
keep spain out of the middle and force them to settle for crosses.
A loss to Portugal would erase any momentom this program has built since 2004!
JUST DO IT
FORCA PORTUGAL!