Negredo set to start for Spain ahead of Torres

Alvaro Negredo looks to be the favourite to play in the striker's role for Spain in Thursday's match with the Republic of Ireland based on their past two training sessions.

Wednesday's eve of match training session - which the Spanish preferred to do at their base camp here rather than at the stadium in Gdansk whose playing surface they heavily criticised following the Italy game - saw Negredo partner Fernando Torres in a training game.

While Del Bosque has fooled people in the past over his line-ups in competitive games as opposed to the ones in training matches Negredo looked to be in splendid form as he scored a spectacular goal.