Babalola Oluwatomiwa
Social Member
"We don't have any fear. But we do have respect," Spain manager Vicente del Bosque said. "They are runner-up from the last World Cup so we have full respect for Holland."
The Spaniards kicks-off their World Cup Group B campaign on Friday against the Dutch, a repeat of the final four years ago, and subsequently face Chile and Australia in later first-round matches.
"We're very optimistic after our training and two friendly matches," del Bosque said. "We are meeting our expectations. We are confident heading into the World Cup."
Del Bosque also said injuries which have sidelined stars such as France's Franck Ribery and Colombian Radamel Falcao would not detract the allure of the World Cup.
"A couple of world stars are not going to be at the World Cup but I don't think because of that the World Cup is going to be less attractive," he said.
"That's not going to diminish the World Cup from being a great event."
"It's important but it doesn't give you any advantage or something like that," Villa said.
"I'm proud of having done it and (I'm going) to work to try to repeat it."
Del Bosque saw some areas he wanted to improve upon after the El Salvador match, as his rivals played a defensive style that took until the 60th minute for Spain to crack open for a goal.
"We need to have better creativity, be able to have better chances in the attacking third," del Bosque said.
"We always want to be on the attack and to control the pace of the game."
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