WANTING TO WIN

Spain's Vicente del Bosque, who guided the nation to a World Cup and European cup championship triumph in successful tournaments, says that he wants to win the World Cup again with the Spanish national team.

Spain are one of the favourites going into the World Cup 2014, which is going to be held in Brazil. This is after the three successive major titles since 2008. Many have been saying that Spain will not win this year's edition since they do not appear as balanced as they have done in recent past.

The former Real Madrid manager has acknowledged that it will be difficult for the team to retain the title, but he is working hard towards making the dream a reality. A number of other teams like Germany, Italy, Brazil, and Argentina are equally good if not stronger than Spain in several areas of the pitch. The home advantage has made Brazil and Argentina look formidable. Spain also face a difficult group stage since they are along with the likes of Netherlands and Chile. They kick-off the campaign with a match against Netherlands on June 13.

Del Bosque has acknowledged that there will be several stars like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo at this tournament, but he is confident of success. Ageing stars like Xavi and Puyol may find it difficult against this young blood.

“There are very good teams and very good players who will be very complicated rivals. The small advantage that Spain has is that we are a team beyond the great individual players that we have. We are in the era of players such as Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and also Frank Ribery and they are star players, but that have won nothing with their national teams and will be hungry to change that in Brazil,” said Del Bosque.