England vs. Spain 2015: TV Channel, Time, Live Stream Info For International Friendly Match
Two contenders to take home the trophy
at next year’s European Championship
will square off in Alicante on Friday,
when defending champions Spain host
an England side that won all 10 matches
in qualification.
England could have done no more than
to breeze through their group with the
only perfect record throughout
qualifying. But the standard of
opposition now increases sharply for
them, with a trip to Spain, followed by a
meeting with Euro 2016 hosts France at
Wembley next Tuesday. Coach Roy
Hodgson will have to negotiate the two
heavyweight fixtures without several of
the players likely to feature strongly in
his plans for next summer, if fit.
Liverpool duo Daniel Sturridge and
James Milner, Arsenal pair Theo Walcott
and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as well as
Everton defender Phil Jagielka are all
currently sidelined through injury.
And Hodgson’s options against Spain
will be further limited by the Premier
League’s top scorer this season, Jamie
Vardy, being ruled out with a knee
complaint. Still, Hodgson, who led
England to a quarterfinal exit at the last
European Championship, has challenged
his fringe players to step up and impress
against high-quality opposition.
“I think there’s lots of players who in the
space of the last two or three months ,
since the start of the season, have really
shown themselves to be very, very
serious competitors for a place in the
starting lineup,” he said at his pre-match
press conference. “So these two games
give us an ideal opportunity, because
anyone who gets there chance against
Spain or France and then goes onto the
field and takes that chance and comes
off the field having played well is
obviously going to be that one step
further forward for being considered
next summer.”
As well as Vardy being ruled out,
Hodgson has also revealed that captain
Wayne Rooney will not start the match
at the 30,000-capacity Estadio José Rico
Pérez. It means that England are set to
begin with Tottenham’s in-form Harry
Kane supported by Everton attacking
midfielder Ross Barkley.
There has similarly been much interest
in the makeup of Spain’s front line.
Diego Costa was left out of the climax of
Spain’s qualification campaign last
month and has been in poor form for
Chelsea this season, scoring just three
times in 15 appearances. His
performances for Spain have been little
better since the Brazilian-born striker
declared his allegiance to his adopted
country. In nine international
appearances, he has netted just once. Yet
he finds himself back in the squad, and
is expected to start up front alongside
Valencia’s Paco Álcacer.
Vicente del Bosque’s side topped their
qualification group ahead of Slovakia,
after bouncing back from an early loss to
their closest challengers to win eight
straight matches. And after a dismal
World Cup title defense in Brazil was
followed by the international retirement
of several glory-laden veterans, a new
generation is beginning to make its
mark. Now one of the more experienced
faces, Manchester United midfielder
Juan Mata believes his country has the
quality to go all the way in France and
win a third straight European
Championship.
“As the reigning champions, we’ll be
trying to defend the trophy,” he said,
reports Spanish sports daily AS . “We are
in a generational change, with younger
players coming on board while other
teams are a bit more mature than us. I
think we still have a competitive level
which is sufficiently high enough to win
it again.”
Kickoff time: 2:45 p.m. EST
TV channel: ESPN Deportes
Live stream: ESPN3 , Watch ESPN
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