France v Spain Preview: Spain on Revenge Mission

France v Spain

Stade de France
12.00

Spain on a Revenge Mission

Two of the World Cup favourites meet in a friendly this Wednesday at the Stade de France in Paris. Spain qualified for South Africa remarkably impressively winning all ten games, scoring 28 goals and conceding five. On the contrary, France finished second to Serbia in their group and needed a narrow play-off win over the Republic of Ireland to secure their passage.

This is Spain’s last away game before they tackle Switzerland, Chile and Honduras in Group H, in what seems like a relatively straightforward draw for them. Recently ESPN made a list of the world’s top 50 players, and six of the top 16 were Spaniards; Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Fernando Torres, David Villa, Iker Casillas, and Cesc Fabregas.

However Spain’s dominance wasn’t always so assured. They were eliminated from the last World Cup 3-1 by Wednesday’s opponents in Hannover. Since then Spain of course won Euro 2008 finally laying to rest their reputation as also-rans and under achievers.

Liverpool’s Fernando Torres, whose goal won that tournament final against Germany in Vienna, is set to return to the side after more than a month out with a knee injury. After this they entertain South Korea and Poland in home friendlies before leaving for South Africa.

France have drawn South Africa, Mexico and Uruguay in another comfortable looking group. They include such famous names such as William Gallas, Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka, Eric Abidal and victorious Manchester United defender Patric Evra in their squad.

Panathinaikos forward Djibril Cisse has been called up to the France squad as cover for injured striker Louis Saha who was left out of Everton’s squad for Saturday’s EPL defeat at Tottenham, suffering from ankle and hamstring problems.

They play Costa Rica, Tunisia and China in further friendlies.

Selected friendlies involving other tournament favourites:

France v Spain
Netherlands v USA
Germany v Argentina
Italy v Cameroon
Portugal v China PR

Other International Matches on Wednesday

Albania v Northern Ireland Algeria v Serbia Angola v Latvia Armenia v Belarus Austria v Denmark Belgium v Croatia Cyprus v Iceland England v Egypt FYR Macedonia v Montenegro Georgia v Estonia Greece v Senegal Hungary v Russia Ivory Coast v South Korea

Luxembourg v Azerbaijan Malta v Finland Moldova v Kazakhstan Poland v Bulgaria Romania v Israel Scotland v Czech Republic Slovakia v Norway Slovenia v Qatar South Africa v Namibia Switzerland v Uruguay Turkey v Honduras Wales v Sweden