Spain will lock horns with Bosnia and Herzegovina at the AFG Arena, St. Gallen in Switzerland, on Sunday. They will look to make a winning start as they will play three warm up matches ahead of Euro 2016.
Spain will be without a number of star players as they were involved in last night's Champions League Final at the San Siro Stadium in Milan. This will make way for a couple of fresh faces in the playing XI.
Surpsiringly, La Roja are not being considered as one of the contenders to win the European Championship. The last two years have not been really nice for the defending champions of the Euro Cup. They made an early exit during the FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil and did not get off to a good start in the qualifying campaign for Euro 2016. Later, they pulled up their socks and went on to the top their group ahead of Slovakia.
Coach Vicent Del Bosque has stated that he will be happy if Spain manages to reach the semi-finals of Euro 2016.
"If we reach the semi-finals I would be happy, that is the truth, although some would see it as a failure. What I do not want is for nerves and worries to start, like against the Netherlands (at the last World Cup)," Del Bosque was quoted as saying by ESPN.
"Such disquiet does not help. Unrest does not help. To win the European Championships is something great and we will try. We will see if we are up to it. Our objective is to think beyond the two European Championships we've won, because people are only going to value what we do in the next one."
Meanwhile, Bosnia and Herzegovina have nine uncapped players in their ranks for the upcoming friendly games. However, Coach Mehmed Bazdarevic will have the stars like Edin Dzeko, Asmir Begovic and Miralem Pjanic in his ranks.
They have a huge challenge ahead of them as they will take on Spain, who are on a nine-match unbeaten run. Also, Bosnia and Herzegovina have never won against Spain, and therefore they will look to put up a spirited show against the European Champions on Sunday.
Bosnia and Herzegovina will look to gain some confidence ahead of their World Cup qualifying campaign which starts later this year.
Probable XI:
Spain: Casillas, Azpilicueta, Bartra, Pique, Alba, Fabregas, Thiago, Busquets, Silva, Morata, Aduriz.
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Begovic, Kolasinac, Zukanovic, Spahic, Vranjes, Lullic, Besic, Pjanic, Visca, Dzeko, Hodzic.
Where to watch live:
The international friendly Spain vs Bosnia and Herzegovina is scheduled to start from 6:00 p.m. local time (9:30 p.m. IST and 5:00 p.m. BST)start. Unfortunately, there will be no live coverage of this game in India and UK.
Audience in US can watch Spain vs Bosnia and Herzegovina live on ESPN3 and stream the same on Watch ESPN.
Spanish fans can watch the game live on Telecinco Espana.
People in Bosnia and Herzegovina can watch Spain vs Bosnia and Herzegovina live on Face TV.
