World Cup 2010: Spain Are The Favourites - Germany Defender Per Mertesacker

The towering defender has named Spain as the favourites for World Cup glory...

By Stefan Coerts
May 11, 2010 12:35:00 PM


Germany start the 2010 World Cup as one of the favourites, but towering defender Per Mertesacker has now voiced his opinion that the Nationalelf aren't the side most likely to strike gold this summer. The Werder Bremen star has picked out Spain as the big favourites instead.

"We still remember how difficult it was at Euro 2008, particularly with the tense games in the knockout stages that could have turned out differently," said Mertesacker to fifa.com.

"We are definitely not big favourites for the World Cup and we cannot expect to just march our way through. We have to perform as a team. Spain are the favourites for the World Cup after winning the Euros.

"The only thing I am interested in at the moment is the group stage. We want to come through that successfully and only then should we start talking about other objectives and opponents.

"We’ll go into the group as favourites but every team is dangerous and there are no noticeable major weaknesses there. Our opponents have a lot of players who play in Europe’s leading leagues. You can’t underestimate anybody and we won’t be doing that."

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1863/world-cup-2010/2010/05/11/1919373/world-cup-2010-spain-are-the-favourites-germany-defender-per