Del Bosque says Costa important for Spain

Del Bosque told The Guardian: “There is no “English” football any more, I don’t think: no authentic English style”.

The European champions have overcome a disappointing 2014 World Cup to breeze into Euro 2016 and Del Bosque has said that his team will continue to play the same style of possession football.

As the Premier League has grown into arguably the biggest league in the world over the last 20 years the England national team has failed to match that success, with it now nearly 50 years since the Three Lions won a major worldwide tournament.

Diego Costa has made a few new enemies in his time in England, but Manchester United and England captain Wayne Rooney is certainly not one of them.

Do you think Messi would have been an ever better player if he played for Spain instead of Argentina?

Unlike Messi, Chelsea forward Diego Costa did decide to play for Spain instead of his country of birth, Brazil.

Asked if he believed Costa has failed in a Spain shirt because he can’t play their close passing game that inevitably makes rivals defend deep and closes down the space that he loves to run into, Del Bosque said: “Costa is not a problem for us”. ‘He comes because we believe in him. Costa is one of our players now, there is nothing else. He’ll have tests [on Saturday] to see how he is.

The game brought a 100th clean sheet for long serving goalkeeper Iker Casillas, who has been on the winning side on 120 times in his 165 caps.

Del Bosque has no doubt De Gea can emulate the achievements of Casillas, but warned it will not prove an easy task.

“We must be very proud of the top sportspeople we have, and Casillas is one of the first of them”, he said. “It is important for us to have a player at this level, with a fantastic career”. He helps give strength to the younger players. Del Bosque, though, does not seem bothered by this supposed contradiction and he does have a point. “He’s not in the best moment of the season like last season where he scored a lot of goals”.

“It is a result of prestige against a powerful and strong team, which constantly threatened us”.