Netherlands attacker Arjen Robben has insisted that his team cannot afford to give Spain space in their Group B opener on Friday.

Louis van Gaal's side have been drawn into arguably the toughest group this summer alongside La Roja, Chile and Australia.

However, the Bayern Munich forward is confident that their work on the training ground will allow the 2010 finalists to progress into the latter stages.

"After the match against France, we were thinking a lot and spoke with the other players. We held a two-hour meeting to see what was best for the team and create more security as a unit. France passed over our heads and if we don't do anything new against Spain, we'll have a problem," he told De Telegraaf.

"Spain obliges us to play well, we cannot give them any space. The coach came with the idea of playing in a 5-3-2 and I agreed. We must always be respectful of Dutch school of thought, with final football and our strengths are still in our position play and the attack, but we have to open ourselves up more.

"And if we leave Spain with too much space, we'll have problems. We can't afford to give anything away in defence, we've struggled a lot in training for the team not to split together. We worked very hard and recorded the sessions to correct any errors."

Robben has scored 23 times for his country since making his debut in 2003.

Written by
Matt Law