We’re the Team to Beat (At least so say Lippi and Dunga)

The Confederations Cup is truly the best of the best when it comes to international competitiveness. Sure, it is overshadowed by the likes of the World Cup and the European Championships but when you have the best team from every region in the world and the reigning World Cup champions you can only expect an amazing tournament.

Brazil and Italy, ranked fourth and fifth respectively are the two most successful footballing nations on this planet and this summer they will be competing in the Confederations Cup with us. Unlike these two nations though, us in Spain have finished our World Cup qualification round for the time being and do not have a match until after the summer tournament.

Italy will play two friendlies while Brazil will do the same and both managers say this is to prepare for the tournament. Both men also said that they will bring their absolute best squad to South Africa because this trophy would mean a lot to their fans and all the players who work to hard to achieve glory.

Both men also did not hesitate in saying:

“Spain is the current leader of the FIFA ranking and therefore is the rival to beat.”

We know we’re the reigning European champions and have a 31 game undefeated streak but with all these high expectations will we be able to deliver? The coaches of the two best teams in the world are claiming we’re the team to beat so surely this adds extra pressure on Del Bosque and the boys.

Luckily for us we have the easier of the two groups with Iraq, New Zealand and South Africa lining up alongside us to make up Group A. In Group B sit Brazil, Egypt, Italy and the United States; quite the difficult group to predict if you ask me.

Still though, when it comes to competitions like these any team can shock another and this time will be no different. We may have conquered Europe’s best, but can we conquer the world’s?