Spain’s coach Vicente del Bosque, center right, gestures to his players during a training session at the Sports Complex Marcel Gaillard in Saint Martin de Re in France, Thursday, June 23, 2016.
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“He is a great Coach, a victor”.
The two-time defending champions face a frightful draw if they are to make it back to Paris on July 10th for the Euro 2016 final.
“We’ve been playing together for years, we don’t just do our job well but we give security to our teammates around us”.
“Other games it was the classic Italy against Spain – level matches which unfortunately we lost on penalties, where we didn’t deserve to lose”.
Practically overnight, Italy “went from heroes to zeroes”, Chiellini said. I know what it’s like to play a game like this.
The coach brought 14 players with less than 25 worldwide appearances, but only five are younger than 25 years old.
Conte is expected to play with three centre-backs against Spain – Barzagli, Bonucci and Chiellini, with Florenzi and Darmian dropping back as cover on either wing. Some didn’t even make it to France, like striker Fernando Torres. The 35-year-old Casillas, Spain’s most experienced player with 167 caps, has already lost his starting position in goal.
Against all hopes and expectations, Spain’s second-place finish means they now face what Morata, who has spent two seasons with Juventus, called a “tough” and “tactically perfect” Italy side in Paris. This is also the most played fixture in the history of the tournament with this game being the 6th time. The Red Devils finished runners-up at the 1980 European Championship, but with a formidable core based around Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne and Thibaut Courtois, Marc Wilmots’ side boast more than enough talent to go one step further in France.
“I couldn’t care less about the top scorer’s chart if we lose”, Morata said after the defending champions’ shock 2-1 defeat to Croatia left them second in Group D and facing a nightmare draw as they bid to retain their title.
After Antonio Di Natale breached the Spain defence in the opening game, La Roja didn’t conceded in the five games that followed, culminating in a 4-0 thrashing of the Azzurri in the final.
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“Spain have been our bogey team since 2008,”the defender he said at a Press conference on Friday”. “That is what is important, regardless of their age”. They’ve made changes in midfield and they seem a more positive team than in 2012′. “In this phase of the competition there are no easy opponents and we probably got the most hard”, said Croatia coach Ante Ancic.
