Spain coach Luis Aragones is content with their World Cup finals group stage draw. At the draw held Friday in Leipzig, Germany, Spain’s ‘Furia Roja’ was placed as top seed in Group H, along with World Cup newcomers Ukraine, African Nations Champions Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia.

Spain may be favourites to progress from the group stage, but Aragones is wary of what is to come if Spain advance from the group stages. "I'm happy, we're favourites," said Spanish coach Luis Aragones, speaking after the draw.

Back in Spain, one of the countries leading newspapers, El Pais, described the draw as " A fortunate start for Spain," and playing down their opposition by saying, "Ukraine, the only European debutant in this World Cup, Tunisia, which has won only one game in a World Cup and Saudi Arabia, the team that had the most goals scored against them in Japan and Korea," (the last World Cup in 2002).

“Schevchenko is the only threat,” El Pais added, in reference to Ukraine's striker Andriy Shevchenko, who plays for Italian Serie A side AC Milan.

Spain and Liverpool FC midfielder Xabi Alonso agreed, and said of the pairing with Ukraine, “Ukraine with Schevchenko up front is strong, but there are other more dangerous groups.” He continued, “That of Argentina, Ivory Coast, the Netherlands and Serbia is a killer.”

But if Spain's opening group appears easy, the following rounds spell trouble for Aragones, and his team

"I'm happy with the teams we have to play, but what worries me are who we'll have to face later," Aragones said. "Apparently we'll likely meet Switzerland or France in the knockout phase and if we get through, then we will almost certainly face Brazil. These are very difficult opponents for us."

Even with their domestic league, La Liga, being one of the strongest in Europe, Spain are the consistent underachievers at major tournaments, having never made it past the semi-finals in a World Cup, and the ‘Furia Roja’ have won just one European title. That was back in 1964.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

delicious | digg | google | yahoo | technorati