World Cup Group H preview: Spain vs Honduras
Spain will be looking to get their World Cup back on track against Honduras today after a shock 1-0 defeat to Switzerland in their opening match.
Spain struggled to get their passing game going against the Swiss, who adopted a similar approach to that which Inter Milan used against Barcelona in the Champions League in semi-final, and without the free-flowing passing scoring chances were hard to come by.
Honduras will not pose such a problem however. The Swiss were led by Ottmar Hitzfeld, one of the best tacticians in football, and had the team to adopt a defensive approach. Against Chile, Honduras struggled and the European Champions are a much better team who play with a similar attacking flair.
Though that match only finished 1-0, Honduras can count themselves lucky it didn’t finish three or four more than that. That’s the kind of score Spain will be looking to run up today and anything less than a dominating performance could send the Spanish public into an England-style panic.
Spain could welcome back Fernando Torres to the line-up after the Liverpool striker came on as a substitute in the first game. Torres didn’t exactly look sharp then but with another week’s worth of training under his belt the sharpness could be back.
Torres should come in to partner David Villa upfront, after the latter failed to live up to his £35million price tag against the defensive Swiss.
Spain manager Vicente del Bosque has a small worry over Sergio Ramos who has a slight rib injury and Andres Iniesta also suffered in the 1-0 defeat. Barcelona target Cesc Fàbregas will continue on the bench despite being desperate to play, while Sergio Busquets will drop to the bench to make way for Torres.
Honduras striker David Suazo could be in-line for a return after missing the first game with a thigh injury meaning Edgar Álvarez should drop to the bench.
Spain should need no extra motivation for this game and if they do need an additional spur they might just want to look at France, England and Italy’s situation.
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