Fifa world cup 2006 : Saudi Arabia VS Spain

With top spot in Group H seeminly secure, Spain coach Luis Aragones can afford the luxury of tinkering with his starting line-up against Saudi Arabia and fielding a few fringe players in Friday’s game in Kaiserslautern.

Marcos Paqueta’s side, meanwhile, will be hoping that his Saudi side can end their Group H campaign on a high after they followed up a dramatic 2-2 draw against Tunisia by crumbling to a 4-0 defeat against Ukraine.

Aragones, whose team have qualified comfortably for the Round of 16, has already served notice that he will change his team, and with several of his older players will be grateful for the rest, watch out for Spain’s young bucks eagerly attempting to show what they can do on the FIFA World Cup stage.

Colours for the game
Saudi Arabia: White shirts, white shorts, white socks
Spain: Red shirts, blue shorts, blue socks

The story so far
In their first game Saudi Arabia's national team from Asia found themselves within seconds of claiming a stunning win over Roger Lemerre’s Tunisia. After falling behind to Zied Jaziri’s early strike, Paqueta’s men staged a stirring comeback to turn the scoreline on its head. Even an sickening injury-time leveller from Rahdi Jaidi couldn't prevent them reflecting with a measure of satisfaction on a job generally well done. Against Ukraine, however, it was a different story altogether. Oleg Blokhin’s side, stung by their humbling opening game experience at the hands of La Selección, took out their frustration on the Asian outfit, notching up a resounding 4-0 win.

As always Spain came into the tournament as potential dark horses. The strength of the country's domestic football has not always been reflected in its FIFA World Cup showings, and Aragones' side only scraped through to this tournament after a play-off win over Slovakia. Patchy form in the warm-up games had hardly raised expectation either, but with the pressure apparently off, the Iberians have made an explosive start to the finals. Ukraine were blown away in the first match, as the Spaniards knocked in four goals without reply. Five days later, against Tunisia, it was not such plain sailing, but a rousing comeback took Aragones’ men through to the Round of 16. Inspirational substitute Raul hit the equaliser before two goals from Atletico Madrid’s swashbuckling striker Fernando Torres sealed a 3-1 win.

The duel
Saudi Arabia’s evergreen goalkeeper Mohammed Al Deayea against the prolific Spanish attack.

The word is that Paqueta will turn to the experience of 180-cap veteran Al Deayea in order to keep out a Spain attack that has run riot in the tournament so far, with seven goals in two games. Real Madrid’s legendary predator Raul will start the game in search of the goal that will take him to the top of his country’s all-time FIFA World Cup scorers’ list. Torres, with three goals so far, and Valencia's David Villa will also be keen to add to their tallies.

Past meetings
Spain and Saudi Arabia have never met at full international level.

What they are saying
Fernando TORRES, Spain striker: If we win the next match and we get through with nine points, then we will be realistic contenders. But we’re taking things as they come. We’re going to be talked about, sure, but we’re not favourites. The boss will make a few changes, and he will rest people. It’s good that everyone can get some playing time under their belt and have a taste of the action.
Marcos PAQUETA, Saudi Arabia coach: Against Ukraine we suffered the same fate as they did against Spain - two goals in the first half and one at the start of the second - but we didn’t give up and the players showed that they want to erase the memories of the last World Cup (when Saudi Arabia lost 8-0 to Germany). I’m a fighter, and now we are all concentrating on putting on a good display against Spain.