Fabregas primed for tough stuff from England

Cesc Fabregas has warned stand-in England skipper Steven Gerrard and his team-mates they will be wasting their time trying to “rough up” Spain in tomorrow’s friendly international.

Gerrard believes England will have to adopt a physical approach against Luis Aragones’ side at Old Trafford after being given a footballing lesson in Madrid when beaten 1-0 just over two years ago.

But Arsenal star Fabregas insists the Spaniards have players of their own who can cope if England try to overcome their technical and skilful play with such tactics.

He said: “We always try to play football. Both teams have great potential and, when these kind of games come up, you always want to win for your country.

“It will be tough because we know how England can play. It will be tough but we think we can beat them. If England try to rough us up, we can handle that. Definitely.

“I think we all know that England will try to go for the physical aspect of the game because they think we don’t like to play the physical game.

“But I think right now we have a good mix of experienced players, who have been playing in England and the Spanish league, and I think we are capable of coping with that.

“We may try to make a mix of playing nice football on the ground and going for the physical game. Myself and Xabi Alonso have been used to it for the last three years playing in England with Arsenal and Liverpool.

“I cannot see there being a problem. Our players also play Champions League football against English teams so they all know what we are talking about.

“I don’t see any problem and we can cope but we respect England because they have a great team and a great midfield.”

Fabregas has revealed his enormous respect for Frank Lampard and admits he will have to be on top of his game against the Chelsea midfielder.

He said: “I have always said that I really admire him for what he did at Chelsea. He started off really young at West Ham and has developed so much as a player.

“In the last three years he has shown everyone what a great player he is. He has done a lot for Chelsea and has won a lot in the last three years.

“It looks like he is not going to stop learning and progressing and scoring goals and he is a great player.

“I have to be really motivated and concentrated whenever I play against him if I want to do well and it will be the same on Wednesday. You want to try and beat him on the pitch.”

Fabregas believes Spain can use the game with England as a launchpad to revive their faltering hopes of qualifying for the 2008 Euro finals.

He said: “We are really focused and motivated for this game. We know that we underachieved at the World Cup and have had up-and-down results in the European qualifiers.

“We have not been at our best recently but we have a team capable of doing much better. It is more than capable of putting things right. We have an excellent group of players and Wednesday is an opportunity to begin a good run.”