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Spain look to Fernando Llorente as they face Portugal again

Athletic Bilbao's Llorente, who has netted seven times in his 12 appearances for Spain, is set to stand in for Fernando Torres who is absent with an ankle ligament injury.

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    World champions Spain are likely to rely once again on super striker Fernando Llorente when they visit neighbours Portugal in a rematch of their World Cup last 16 clash on a bumper night of internationals on Wednesday.

    This week's friendlies give coaches the chance to experiment but Spain manager Vincente del Bosque was in no mood to tinker with his squad as he called up 22 of the 23 players who were on duty at this year''s World Cup finals in South Africa.                                           

    Athletic Bilbao's Llorente, who has netted seven times in his 12 appearances for Spain, is set to stand in for Fernando Torres who is absent with an ankle ligament injury.    

    Llorente also replaced Torres in the 1-0 win over Portugal at the World Cup which was secured by a David Villa goal.                                           

    Portugal have a classy forward of their own of course in winger Cristiano Ronaldo who tops the scoring charts in Spain with 11 goals in 11 league games for Real Madrid this season. 

    England and France, still recovering from below-par World Cup campaigns, can assess their progress when they square up at Wembley while old foes Argentina and Brazil clash in Qatar.    

    France beat England 2-0 on their last visit to Wembley in 1999 thanks to a Nicolas Anelka double.                                           

    The striker is not involved this time having been banned for 18 matches after insulting former coach Raymond Domenech at the World Cup, triggering a strike in his support by other players that eventually led to Les Bleus''s shameful first-round exit.                                           

    France have improved since then under new manager Laurent Blanc's guidance but the 1998 world champions are aware England will be trickier opponents than Luxembourg, Romania or Bosnia all of whom they have beaten in their Euro 2012 qualifiers.         

    "It will be a much tougher test against England," said Blanc.

    Argentina will look to end a run of five matches without beating Brazil having last tasted success over their big rivals in a World Cup qualifier in Buenos Aires in June 2005.

    Germany, third in the World Cup under coach Joachim Loew, have continued to call on their promising pool of young talent with four newcomers in the squad for the visit to Sweden.

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