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| i.dailymail.co.uk |
Fernando Torres has had a private meeting with Spain coach Vicente del Bosque and begged to be allowed to play in the World Cup final.
Torres is sweating on a place in Sunday night's line-up against Holland after enduring a dreadful, scoreless tournament and after being left out of the team that beat Germany in Wednesday night's semi-final in Durban.
It is understood the Liverpool striker spoke personally to coach Del Bosque at Spain's training base two hours outside Johannesburg and told him he will not let him down if he is reinstated for the final here at Soccer City.
Torres was left out against Germany after being substituted on the hour in Spain's two previous knock-out matches against Paraguay and Portugal. He was replaced by Barcelona midfielder Pedro against Germany, with David Villa being moved in from the left wing to play through the middle.
Del Bosque has not told his players yet who will play on Sunday but it is understood that Torres is now likely to be reinstated after looking considerably sharper than he had previously during his brief run-out from the bench against Germany.
In the Spanish camp there is enormous sympathy for Torres, who came into the biggest tournament of his career on the back of a season of injuries at Anfield and has not looked remotely like scoring in any of the games he has played over the last four weeks.
Former Liverpool team-mate Xabi Alonso said: 'He is a great footballer and a great guy. We have absolute trust in him. Great players are still great players, even when they haven't scored a goal.'
Torres didn't find out he was not starting Wednesday's semifinal until three hours before kick-off and Del Bosque is likely to employ the same tactic this weekend.
Even though Spain have never played in a World Cup final, they will start as favourites tomorrow.
Nevertheless, the threat of one of the players of the tournament, Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder, cannot be ignored and on Friday Spanish defensive midfielder Sergio Busquets claimed that stopping the Inter Milan playmaker could be the secret to a Spanish victory.
Busquets said: 'We will try and stop him. It will be partly my job but I will try to do it with the help of the team. It will involve being tight and close to him and trying not to leave him time to think because if he does then he will easily play a good ball to a team-mate who's in a dangerous position for us.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/worldcup2010/article-1293525/WORLD-CUP-2010-Let-play-Fernando-Torres-begs-Spain-starting-place-World-Cup-final.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz0tGT9yjIt
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