Azpilicueta: Spain have to adapt quickly

Cesar Azpilicueta knows that Spain will need to adapt quickly to conditions in Brazil to successfully defend their FIFA World Cup title.

Vicente del Bosque’s side have been pitted against the Netherlands, Chile and Australia in Group B, with Azpilicueta keen to avoid a sluggish start like in 2010.

In South Africa, Spain lost their opening match against Switzerland, but recovered to claim their first World Cup triumph in Johannesburg against the Netherlands in the final.

Conditions in Brazil will be different to those four years ago and the Chelsea defender, who is playing in his first major international tournament, is relishing the chance to help Spain become only the third nation to retain the trophy.

“For every player it’s a dream to play in a World Cup,” he told the official Chelsea website. “It’s a massive tournament which everybody is looking forward to.

“We have experience from last year, when we played in the Confederations Cup in Brazil.

“The World Cup is obviously different but we know what we can expect, although we will have to adapt to the conditions very quickly.

“We have the feeling of doing the right things after winning two European Championships and the World Cup,

“It’s very difficult to keep winning but we will try, we know the way we want to play and hopefully our style of play will help us achieve what we want to.”