|
Villa Confident Of Euro Success
Valencia and Spain striker David Villa is confident that the nation
have a good chance of putting their reputation of big-tournament bottlers
to bed at the European Championships in Austria and Switzerland this summer.
| |
|
|
(goal.com)
|
Spain qualified for the tournament by topping Group F ahead
of Sweden, losing just two games on route to the finals and will once
again be paired with the Scandinavians, alongside Russia and holders Greece,
in Group D of the tournament proper.
"They are difficult opponents, and we have faced all of them before
whilst Luis Aragones has been in charge," he told AS.com.
"Every team that goes to the Euro's does so with the intention of
winning it, not just to perform well, but to take the trophy. We must
not forget that Greece are the reigning champions and that Russia, for
example, qualified in place of England, and that is not something that
happens by chance."
The 1964 European Championship represents the only time that Spain have
won a major trophy at international level, but Villa doesn't feel that
their poor recent history in international competition will have an effect
on their performance this summer, especially now that they have found
a consistent and successful tactical approach.
"Those things have already happened and are in the past; the supposed
black curse on Spain is not key to whether or not we are successful. What
has happened before in previous tournaments does not have any value because
Greece had never won a Euro before the last one," he affirmed.
"We are more or less the same spine of the team from the last World
Cup, but we have improved together. The system is very well defined, with
the two variants, the 4-4-2 and the 4-1-4-1, Spain have demonstrated that
we can win with either one of the two, that we comfortable with either
of them, and I sincerely believe we come into the tournament in better
shape than at the World Cup."
Villa indicated that he would be happy to play alongside Fernando Torres
or Dani Guiza at the tournament and is enjoying his role as one of the
more experienced members of the squad despite having not yet reached the
peak of his career.
"I am 26 years old and already I am one of the older ones because
of the amount of young players coming through like Sergio, Albiol, Silva,
Cesc... they are starting their careers and are already at a high level.
It is impressive when you think about what the future may hold, because
given the youth in the squad we can only improve," he concluded.
Nick Dorrington
Goal.com,
29/04/2008
|
|
