Turkey v Spain World Cup Qualifier Preview

Decisions, decisions Mr. del Bosque, that’s what you have on your hands for today’s match.

La Furia Roja travel to Istanbul to take on our half-Asian group mates Turkey in what is guaranteed to be our toughest test yet. Whilst we did the job at home in Madrid last Saturday getting all three points, we still looked less than confident at times and didn’t play a typical Spanish game. The Turks contained our speed and passing well and didn’t give us the time on the ball like we love which resulted in us having to adapt to certain things we’re not used to.

We’re a massive 7 points ahead of Turkey atop group 5 and don’t look like giving it up to anyone. Not to mention we’re riding a massive 30 game undefeated streak and within that we’ve now won 10 straight.

Last match Vicente del Bosque deployed a strange formation which saw three central midfielders in Xavi, Xabi Alonso, and Marcos Senna line up along one winger in Santi Cazorla. Anyone who watched the game saw that the midfield looked awkward and wasn’t working out properly, it was just too crowded with too many similar players and not to mention we had no width what so ever, our attack was just direct and nothing special.

If you believe the media reports then del Bosque will start Marcos Senna alongside Xabi Alonso in their defensive midfield roles with Xavi as the play maker and Albert Riera playing on the right flank as well as David Silva on the left. This 5 man midfield means that either Torres or Villa will start up top alone, most likely Fernando as he plays that similar type role at Liverpool.

No new injuries to worry about just the same three as last game – Fàbregas, Puyol, and Iniesta.

If we win this match there’s no doubt that we’ll be in flying form (as if we’re not already) and to be honest I don’t see us coming out of the Turkish capital with anything less than all three points. One sub-par performance doesn’t mean anything for the defending European Champions, we know where the mistakes were made and going into Turkey today del Bosque will have assessed them ahead of time.

I don’t see Turkey being able to score because with Xabi Alonso and Senna both playing in their natural roles today we will have a very solid defensive core and I don’t rate Nihat or Tuncay to crack that.

It will be hard but I think the boys will return to Spain tomorrow with all three points, Turkey may have heart but when it comes to talent it’s like comparing apples and oranges.