Raul prepared to accept the role of substitute

A tale of two strikers this one, with Spain's Raul set to start the game on the bench, where he might well be joined by Ukraine's biggest star, Andriy Shevchenko.

A couple of years back the idea of dropping Raul would have been unthinkable, but after a season blighted by injury and loss of form at Real Madrid, there was no great surprise yesterday when team manager Luis Aragones strongly hinted, and the player himself confirmed, that he would not be among the starters for this evening's first group game.

"I'm not hurt by being a substitute," insisted Raul, who scored three goals in the only two previous meetings between these sides and is a favourite of the 67-year-old coach. "Everybody in the squad wants to play but the manager has to pick just 11 and we must accept that. There will be opportunities for all of us over the coming weeks."

Aragones all but confirmed that Raul would not be in the starting line-up.

"I haven't told the players what the team will be yet, but I've given enough clues for everyone to work it out and I've been training with a team without Raul," he told a news conference.

"My belief at the moment is that other players might be able to offer me something different. This doesn't mean, however, that Raul won't feature in the match at some time.

"I think it would be difficult for him to play 90 minutes and it would be better for him to come on during the game. Raul is the captain and I speak with him enough for him to understand my decision."

Something of an institution back at home, Raul looked to have done enough last week to retain his place by scoring in the friendly win over Egypt from a withdrawn role behind Fernando Torres and Valencia's David Villa.

"Now I can pop up where they least expect me," he beamed afterwards. It seems unlikely he had the bench in mind.

Villa's tremendous form at Valencia, for whom he got 23 goals in 35 games this season, appears to have made the newcomer impossible to ignore, and with Luis Garcia and Torres both having had much better seasons than the skipper, Aragones has opted, logically but still bravely, to take the bull by the horns.

To date the veteran and controversial Spaniard has barely put a foot wrong with his team selections and his side take the field this evening unbeaten since June 2004, when they lost to Portugal in the group stages of the European Championships.

Here, they will be aiming to do better than their traditional quarter-final exit. As ever, they have the players, with Carlos Puyol, Iker Casillas and Xabi Alonso all capable of shining at this tournament. Somehow, though, Spain have a knack of not making such assets count for much.

The Ukraine, meanwhile, have been sweating profusely over the fitness of Shevchenko the striker having played only 30 minutes of football since injuring knee ligaments while playing for Milan against Parma more than a month ago.

During that half hour he did manage a goal, one of three Oleg Blokhin's side managed in their warm-up win over Luxembourg.

With temperatures expected to top 30 degrees today, there is understandable concern over whether Shevchenko, who is expected to do a good deal more spade work for his national team than for his club, could possibly go the distance.

Neither the striker nor his coach was giving much away yesterday, but the former did suggest he feels fit enough to start, and with a couple of others who performed well in qualifying missing, that might be enough to prompt his inclusion.

Spain play their second match against Tunisia on June 19th and meet Saudi Arabia in their final group game.

Probable line-ups

Spain (4-3-3)

Casillas; Ramos, Puyol, Ibanez, Pernia; Senna, Alonso, Xavi; Garcia, Torres, Villa

Coach: Luis Aragones

Ukraine (4-4-2)

Shovkovsky; Yezersky, Rusol, Vashchyuk, Nesmachny; Husin, Tymoshchyuk, Shelayev, Rotan; Rebrov, Belik

Coach: Oleg Blokhin