Del Bosque admits that he wanted to avoid French test

Given Spain’s success over the last four years, it is not surprising their supporters have started taking winning for granted.

But Del Bosque said: “What I don’t want is this Spanish custom that we don’t have to be careful of the opponent. It is a huge match, a match that appeals to everyone. We have time to think about the team we will pick and we will adopt the line-up we believe will be the best.”

Although Spain topped a group including Italy and Croatia, Del Bosque has not escaped criticism.

Jesus Navas’s goal three minutes from time was enough to beat Croatia on Monday but they failed to find their normal rhythm for large spells and were even thankful to Iker Casillas for a fine save from Ivan Rakitic when the score was still 0-0.

“We had 70 per cent of possession, we shot on goal 16 or 17 times and they had only seven or eight attempts,” he told Radio Marca. “We dominated more than Croatia and we didn’t play badly. We weren’t as bad as it appeared to me at the time.

“It was an awkward game for us. We had a lot of compliments rained down on us the week before and there was a stream of comments that we were superior to the rest. The conservatism that sometimes doesn’t lead to great football could have cost us and possibly we didn’t have a lot of penetration but in defence we were pretty good.”

That is something which could not be said about France’s defence last night but to be fair to the back-line the whole team were poor in Kiev against the already eliminated Swedes.

Coach Laurent Blanc admits his team must improve greatly if they are to reach the semis.

“You have to be optimistic to think we can beat Spain but it’s hard right now to imagine we can,” he said. “We have to do better. We were not strong enough in the tackles.

“Sweden played with a lot of heart, they gave everything, physically they were much better than us. We suffered a great deal at the back and in midfield. We were too average in too many areas and could not hope to win.”

Zlatan Ibrahimovic broke the deadlock after the break with a delightful acrobatic volley while Sebastian Larsson drove home from close range.

Philippe Mexes’s poor tournament got even worse when he picked up his second yellow card of the finals, meaning he is suspended for the Spain game.

The centre-half, who was booked for a foul, said: “It is always annoying to pick up a yellow card when you can avoid it. It was 65 or 70 metres from our goal.”