Spain's players reckon the secret to beating France [Images] in their last 16 showdown on Tuesday will be to keep their opponents' ageing midfield on the move and deprive them of the ball.

"One of the things we want to do is to make them run in midfield," forward Luis Garcia told a news conference on Sunday. "The team that doesn't have the ball will suffer and what's more they've had three hard games in the group stage."

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Zinedine Zidane [Images], Patrick Vieira and Claude Makelele, three of France's key midfielders are in their 30s whereas Xavi, the oldest player in Spain's first-choice trio, is still only 26.

But Luis Garcia, who is likely to be on the bench as Raul returns to the starting lineup, insisted Spain are not underestimating the size of the task confronting them.

"We have a lot of respect for France as they are a great team with great players and that makes them a side to fear even though they haven't played that well up until now," he said. "But at the same time we won't be in awe of them.

"There are no favourites at this stage of the competition, the team that makes the fewest errors will go through."

IN DECLINE

Centre back Juanito, who scored the winning goal in the 1-0 victory over Saudi Arabia in Spain's final group match, said he was at a loss to explain why France had struggled so much in recent years.

"France had a hard time in qualifying and could even have missed out on the tournament. They also found it difficult in the group stage and went out early in the last World Cup.

"They seem to be on the decline, but it is hard to understand why as they have some great players. They could spark into life at any minute and we'll have to play a great game to beat them."

Although their head-to-head record is evenly balanced, Spain have never beaten France in a competitive match. They lost to Les Bleus in the final of the 1984 European Championship and in the quarter-finals of Euro 2000.

However, centre back Pablo Ibanez insisted their past failures would not have any influence on Tuesday's game.

"This team doesn't think about the past, only the present," he said. "France are a very strong side, but they have their weak points too and we'll be working on exploiting them."