Madrid, May 28 (IANS) Spain will play its first warm up game ahead of the 2016 European Championships against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Austria on Sunday, but it will be hard for coach Vicente del Bosque to draw many conclusions.
With the players from FC Barcelona and other teams which played in the Cup finals last weekend not reporting for duty until this Saturday and the seven who are playing in the Champions League final not joining the squad until June 4, Del Bosque has only nine players from the squad of 23 he named for this summer's competition available, reports Xinhua.
All of those are likely to get a game, as are goalkeepers Sergio Asensio and Pau Lopez, who were in the auxiliary group of 11 players Del Bosque named to help make up the numbers.
Aritz Aduriz, Pedro Rodriguez and Nolito will probably form an attack which may change considerably when Spain kick off their Euro 2016 campaign against Croatia on June 13.
Marc Bartra and Cesar Azpiliqueta can expect to kick off in defence, while Hector Bellerin also stands to make his debut, as perhaps do Diego Llorente and Inigo Lekue, who like Bellerin will not be going to France.
Bruno Soriano, Mikel San Jose, Cesc Fabrigas and David Silva should play in a midfield which also has little in common with the side expected to start the Euros.
Del Bosque will be able to count on players such as Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and Alvaro Morata and David de Gea against South Korea on June 1, but the feeling is that he has a thankless task of preparing for a major tournament with a squad of players who although they promise big things in the future, won't even be going to the tournament they are preparing for.
--IANS
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