Alvaro Arbeloa: Spain "not comfortable" with world-champion pressure
Alvaro Arbeloa has insisted Spain are ready to deal with the increased pressure to succeed that comes with being world champions.
Spain lifted the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, following up on their success at the UEFA 2008 European Football Championship and kick off the defence of their European title against Liechtenstein in a Euro 2012 qualifying match tonight.
With all of their successes and clearly superior squad, Spain are set to begin their first qualifying match as overwhelming favourites to see off the challenge of minnows Liechtenstein. The old adage that there are no easy games at international level has come in to play, with some pundits speculating that the pressure may get to Spain, just as it did in South Africa when they lost their first group stage game to unfancied Switzerland.
'Team to beat'
However, former Liverpool defender Arbeloa told news agency EFE that Spain were able to cope with the pressure being placed on the players. He said that: “Clearly we are superior to Liechtenstein, but we also know that, day in day out, you can never relax. Nothing has changed since we have become world champions, but even at the World Cup we felt as though we were the team to beat. We are aware that from now on this is even higher. But we are not comfortable in this role.”
The 27-year-old Real Madrid full-back also revealed that Spain’s enormous success over the last few years has inspired them to push on for further glory. He said that: “After experiencing how beautiful it was (to become world champions), we want to repeat it. We are a very humble team that plays every game to win. There will be new challenges, such as staying on our European throne. It is a very nice target.”
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