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Del Bosque starts Spain’s new era with loss
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SPAIN coach Vicente del Bosque saw plenty of positives in defeat as the deposed world champion began a new era with a 0-1 friendly defeat to France in Paris on Thursday.
In its first game since bowing out of the World Cup, Spain had three debutants in its starting line-up at the Stade de France and a goalkeeper in David de Gea winning just his second cap, while Santi Cazorla, at 29, was the oldest player to feature. The result was a first defeat to France since the last 16 of the World Cup in 2006, just before the start of its golden era, and a failure to muster a single shot on target as substitute Loic Remy’s 73rd-minute effort for the host made the difference.
However, Del Bosque, 63, believes the performance against a side he rates highly augurs well ahead of the start of its Euro 2016 qualifying campaign against Macedonia in Valencia on Monday.
“There was a good attitude from everyone. We moved the ball well and there were plenty of positives to take with lots of new faces,” said the coach, who has seen Xavi Hernandez, Xabi Alonso and David Villa retire from international football and was also missing the likes of Andres Iniesta and Gerard Pique in Paris.
“It was an even game. They had quicker transitions, but we controlled the game more. We need more matches but we will improve and in general I think we showed we are a good team.”
The lack of a cutting edge was surely the biggest concern, with Spain only coming close to equalizing when substitute David Silva sent a shot narrowly wide seven minutes from time, but Del Bosque believes that center forward Diego Costa, again disappointing as he was at the World Cup, will eventually come good at international level.
“We didn’t take what chances we had but the connection with Diego Costa was better. We need to link up well with him. They are very strong defensively and didn’t let us play.”
In Bari, Italy scored twice in the opening 10 minutes and Antonio Conte got the better of Guus Hiddink in their coaching debuts as a 10-man Netherlands was beaten 2-0.
Ciro Immobile scored his first international goal three minutes in, and Daniele De Rossi added a penalty in the 10th.
The Netherlands rarely threatened.
Conte replaced Cesare Prandelli, who resigned after Italy’s first-round elimination from the World Cup. The well-traveled Hiddink began his second stint in charge of the Netherlands, building on the work of Louis van Gaal, who steered the Dutch to third in Brazil.
“Besides the result, I was interested to see how the lads responded. It was definitely a positive response,” Conte said. “We’ve only worked together for four days and we have a long road ahead of us.”
Conte caused a stir when he left out star striker Mario Balotelli from his squad. It marked the first time in 16 years that an Italy coach won on debut. After Dino Zoff guided the Azzurri to a 2-0 win over Wales in 1998, Giovanni Trapattoni, Marcello Lippi, Roberto Donadoni and Prandelli each failed to start with a victory.
Conte led Juventus to three consecutive Serie A titles and is known as a disciplinarian. “He’s a hammer,” Immobile said. “He expects a lot from every player and that’s the way it should be.”
In Liege, host Belgium beat an aggressive Australian side 2-0.
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