Del Bosque backs Costa to improve for Spain

Spain Coach Vicente Del Bosque believes Diego Costa’s La Roja performances will improve as he settles in to the national team.

Costa made his Spain debut in Wednesday’s 1-0 win over Italy, the same opposition for his Brazil debut prior to the Atletico Madrid forward changing allegiance.

Del Bosque said he was pleased with the performance and feels Costa will do better in future games now the pressure of his first appearance has been dealt with.

“We brought vibrancy to our game and moved the ball around quickly and well,” Del Bosque told reporters after the final whistle.

“We were also alert when Italy were advancing on our goal.

“All of our players will become stronger. I thought Diego looked comfortable.

“He did well considering it was his first game and once he loosens up I’m sure he’ll bring a lot to the team.”

Del Bosque was questioned about the decision not to give Xavi Hernandez any minutes and he explained that he did plan to call on the Barcelona midfielder, but his fitness wasn’t up to scratch.

“Xavi understands the situation. We had planned on him playing 30 minutes but decided against it,” Del Bosque said.

“I’ve spoken to him and there’s no problem. He wasn’t fully fit. He said he wasn’t feeling right.”

The friendly was the last game before Del Bosque names his squad for the World Cup but the Coach refused to be drawn on whether or not this party was representative of the one that will go to Brazil.

“There could be some changes. We can’t really say anything specific just yet because we’ve got three months ahead of us,” he added.

The game was played at Atletico Madrid’s Vicente Calderon but the stadium was far from sold out, something Del Bosque attributed to a 10pm local time start.

“The late kick off time was more for television than supporters filling the stadium,” Del Bosque acknowledged.