Torres set for bench role in openerDavid Villa is expected to play as the lone striker for Spain with Fernando Torres on the bench for Wednesday's Group H clash Switzerland, while Andres Iniesta is in line to start in the five-man midfield.
Torres and Iniesta, automatic selections in Spain's first XI,
are fit again after returning from knee surgery and a minor muscle injury respectively ahead of their World Cup opener but coach Vincente del Bosque appears most likely to ease Torres back into action and go with a midfield quintet behind new Barcelona signing Villa.
Even if he also decides not to risk creative midfielder Iniesta from the start against Switzerland, only a pressure-induced collapse should prevent Spain, the tournament favourites, from getting off to a winning start, such is their quality and squad depth.
Del Bosque spent his last pre-match press conference playing down the optimism around his squad, warning them progression through the tournament won't happen by default.
Del Bosque said: "There's extraordinary optimism. But many make it sound like Spain has a direct route to the final and it's not like that. We're not on this highway of thought that everyone seems to be on. If you want to achieve something you have to achieve it with work and by being a great athlete. It's difficult to get away from the view of the outside. There is an optimism as if we were going to play the World Cup final now. But fortunately, we have players that are aware of the reality and not of utopia. Players that know what football is like."
Switzerland's veteran coach Ottmar Hitzfeld admits his team,
without captain and star striker Alexandrr Frei, have "nothing to lose" in Durban. Hitzfeld has labelled Spain the "team of the century" but refused to rule out an upset, if only because the laws of probability dictate that his men must stand a chance of earning their first ever victory over Spain sooner or later.
Hitzfeld sought some small advantage by asking fans to up the volume of their vuvuzela orchestra at their final training session in the hope of getting his team used to the noise they will experience in Durban's Moses Mabhida Stadium.
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