Spain coach Vicente del Bosque has insisted that possession football is the key to his side doing well at the World Cup finals in South Africa but warned that they cannot expect to have an easy passage through to the latter stages of the competition.

So far in their pre-tournament warm-up games la Furia Roja have encountered teams looking to defend and hit them on the counterattack and the coach insists they must be ready for whatever style of play an opponent presents during the finals, while sticking to their own game plan.

"I have no doubt about what is best for Spain. In every conversation I remind players that the key is possession, take the ball and know how to play. That's our style and our identity," he told AS.

"Anyone who thinks we're going to go 2-0 up in the first half hour of each game and against every opponent is wrong. We saw major teams in the pre-World Cup have been struggling, France, Italy and Portugal. What you need to do is have the possession, control and exploit the chances that we will make sure of.

"We will have more opponents with different styles but we have weapons to deal with that. Spain have matured in games. Against Korea those who played in the first half helped those who came on later to find the spaces."