The chase for the 2016 European Cup will take its next step on Thursday. Two teams attempting to qualify for the tournament will do battle in a match between Slovakia and Spain. The contest scheduled for 2:45 p.m. ET will be held at Tehelne Pole Stadium in Bratislava and can be live streamed here free. Additional TV coverage can be found on ESPN2.
Spanish head coach Vicente del Bosque had this to offer ahead of today's European qualifier (via Marca): "Without losing sight of what happened to us in the World Cup, because it serves as more experience, we can't stop looking forward as any good sportsman should. There was self-criticism in the World Cup. The first thing we did was say we were below par. It's not possible to be more self-critical than that."
"The reasons [for our poor play]? That's not something that's easy to pinpoint," he added. "We trained well, people were motivated and there was nothing to predict what happened."
When asked about the state popularity of his national team, del Bosque continued by saying, "I don't know how to explain the indifference between defeat and victory, but that's how I feel. After losing, we have the same number of requests to play even though they said before we were only going to places because we had won things."
Tactical Preview
Player to Watch: Slovakia's Martin Skrtel has made five league appearances for Liverpool this season, averaging 2.2 interceptions and 10.8 clearances per match.
Slovakia's Projected Lineup (4-2-3-1): Mucha; Hubocan; Durica, Skrtel, Pekarik; Kucka; Pecovsky; Mak, Hamsik, Weiss; Sestak
Spain's Projected Lineup (4-3-3): Casillas, Alba, Ramos, Pique, Carvajal; Fabregas, Busquets, Koke; Silva, Costa, Iniesta
Note: Credit all statistics to officially licensed data from Opta Sports (via WhoScored).
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