Del Bosque warns of Italian threat in Euro 2012

 　　MADRID, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Spain coach Vicente del Bosque was cautious¹ about his side's chances of success in the 2012 European Championship after the draw was held in Kiev on Friday.

　　Spain travel to the competition, which will be held in Poland and the Ukraine as defending European and world champions and with a 100 percent record from qualifying², but will have to face Italy, the Republic of Ireland and Croatia in a complicated³ Group stage.

　　Reflecting on the luck of the draw for the website of sports paper, diario Marca afterwards, Del Bosque warned that Spain would have to work hard to reach the knockout stages.

　　"It is going to be difficult, there are 16 strong rivals⁴ in the competition and each of them has their own particular difficulty," said Del Bosque, who admitted he was pleased Spain had missed being drawn⁵ against the powerful German side.

　　"We have to face a powerful side in Italy and two other rivals who have come from the playoff. We will be prepared and we have to think about our own game," he said.

　　Del Bosque has memories of Spain's recent defeat 2-1 to Italy in a friendly match.

　　"You never know what is going to happen in football, but it is a fact that we lost to them not long ago and they are a strong side," he said, before valuing the possibility of a Spain vs. Germany final.

　　"It's not a bad hypothesis⁶ and I hope that it happens, because it would be a fantastic final," said Del Bosque.

　　Spain's first game is against Italy on June 10th, before they move on to play the Irish four days later and finally Croatia on June 18th.

1 cautious   

adj.十分小心的，谨慎的

参考例句：

• We should not only be bold,but also be cautious.我们不仅要大胆，而且要谨慎。
• He was cautious about his work.他对工作非常谨慎。

2 qualifying   

使具有资格的

参考例句：

• players who fail at the pre-qualifying stage 在预选赛中淘汰掉的选手
• A doctoral candidate is required to pass a qualifying examination. 考博士需通过一个资格考试。

3 complicated   

adj.错综复杂的，麻烦的，结构复杂的

参考例句：

• The poem is so complicated that I cannot make out its meaning.这首诗太复杂，我理解不了它的意思。
• This is the most complicated case I have ever handled.这是我所处理过的最为复杂的案子。

4 rivals   

竞争对手( rival的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• one of the President's chief rivals 总统的主要政敌之一
• She always managed to outsmart her political rivals. 她总有办法表现得比她的政敌智高一筹。

5 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

6 hypothesis   

n.假说，假设，(无根据的)猜测，揣测

参考例句：

• We have proved the hypothesis.我们已经证明了这种假设。
• The results confirmed his hypothesis on the use of modal verbs.结果证实了他的关于情态动词用法的假设。