Euro 2012 Comment: Complacency Shouldn't Be An Issue For Sparkling Spain

Ask most footballers which team they'd most like to be a part of at the moment, and you'll find the response is likely to be the Spanish national squad.

It wouldn’t just be the enjoyment of sharing a passing triangle with Xavi and Andres Iniesta, or watching David Villa continue his quest to become La Roja’s all-time leading scorer, or even becoming involved in the camaraderie that exists in a team that has grown together in the past three years.

It would be to experience that sweet, satisfying feeling that there is no one in the world better than you. Euro 2008 winners. World Cup 2010 winners. The feeling of superiority must be the sweetest of all.

But with dominance, complacency breeds and can often go unnoticed. Spain begin their defence of the title they lifted in Vienna two years ago with a seemingly straightforward trip to the minnows of Liechtenstein, and even the oft-utilised footballing cliche of there being “no easy games at this level” should regard this match as an anomaly that threatens the rule.

But a self-contented attitude will remain La Roja’s biggest viable threat in a group that contains Lithuania, a past-their-best Czech Republic team and Scotland, who are once again attempting to rebuild under new coach Craig Levein, as well as Friday's opposition. On paper, turning up should guarantee top spot, but the memories of embarrassments from years past must be remembered even after the dream-like successes that have occurred.

Nights like a rainy Windsor Park, where Northern Ireland not only notched the scalp of the Spanish, but also of the reign of Raul as the goal-getter-in-chief, in a 3-2 win in 2006. That game proved to a monumental turning point, leading to a life-changing reversal of fortunes that allows international football’s supposed underachievers to now sit proudly on top of the world.

That evening should be cherished as much as holding any trophy aloft, because it knocked complacency into touch, and the noises from the camp at the moment hold this true, even if the answers are perhaps a touch too diplomatic.  

Xavi and Sergio Busquets warn of the virtue that is respect for the opposition, despite the ludicrous odds and seemingly helpless plight of the Liechtenstein team. Vicente del Bosque proved to be slightly more aggressive, arguing that “goal difference may prove vital,” but even this comment was swiftly followed by: “It is the win that is essential.”

Spain clearly talk the talk of a team who remain considerate of football’s unique way of stripping a team of its invincibility in an all-too-short space of time, and if this team, the greatest in the history of the nation, is to continue to lavish us with their effervescent style then the foundations are laid by being respectful, but ultimately ruthless, in matches such as the clash in Liechtenstein on Friday evening.

What is a team to do when everything has already been won?

Simply do it all over again, and that quest kicks off in the Rheinpark Stadion.