The game against Russia will be as tough as against Brazil, according to Spanish midfielder David Silva – The New Indian Express

AFP

MOSCOW: Spain midfielder David Silva said that Sunday's final showdown against hosts of the World Cup would be as difficult as that against Brazil, five-time winner.

The Spanish team winning the title in 2010 in South Africa, and his team will be clearly favorite in Moscow.

However, they have not yet reached the top of the competition and have won only one of three group matches, beating Iran 1-0 "I think in a World Cup, all opponent is difficult, we saw it in our own group, it was very difficult for us to win, "Silva said Saturday.

"Now we play against Russia and I'm sure it's going to be extremely difficult, as if we were playing against Brazil."

Spain will have to tighten a defense that has fled five goals in the group stage, with Russia the second-best scorers of the competition.

"We must minimize mistakes," said Silva. "In such difficult games, if we give goals by mistakes, things will be very difficult." We must defend ourselves better and the smallest mistakes can send you home. "

Silva, who started every game in Russia until here, was one of the targets of criticism.

The 32-year-old man will seek to let his feet speak while that Spain is trying to take advantage of what seems to be a favorable draw.

"We talked a lot about criticism", he said, "We are professionals, we must strive to make our best so that we can change people's opinion. This is not always deserved but we are used to it. "

Spain has a terrible record against host countries in the big finals – they have never won in eight attempts – but coach Fernando Hierro is not worried about past failures

"Statistics are made to be broken," said Hierro. "Why do we always look back? We had three games here, but we are going to look at what happened 10 or 15 years ago.

"It's about what happens tomorrow at 5:00 pm, the rest is irrelevant and that's what we need to focus on."

L & # 39; Spain was held by Russia in a 3-3 draw in a friendly match last November in St. Petersburg.

The last meeting between the two teams took place at the 39, Euro 2008, where Spain beat Russia 3-0. "We have a very clear plan in mind, we know what Russia represents, we know their qualities and we have a lot of confidence in our players" Hierro said, 19659003] "It's a tough, physically challenging and very big team, there's a lot of variety and we'll have to find its weak points."

"Tomorrow we start a new tournament "We will see who is at the top after 90 minutes, the best will stay, or sometimes the best goes home too."