Spain test ahead for Football Ferns

The Football Ferns continue their preparations for the women's World Cup in June next week with two matches against the 15th-ranked Spanish side. Photo / Getty Images.

The Football Ferns continue their preparations for the women's World Cup in June next week with two matches against the 15th-ranked Spanish side.

The 18th-ranked Football Ferns are now in Spain as they build towards Wednesday morning's clash with their hosts and New Zealand coach Tony Readings said the group could see the World Cup on the horizon.

"Now it's about putting the final pieces of the jigsaw together and we've had quite a few games this year to be able to work on things and the closer we get to the tournament the more we want to really refine what we do," Readings said.

Hot on the heels of the tri-series in Auckland earlier this month, Readings has set match focus points to work on with his group after their experience against Korea and Australia at Bill McKinlay Park.

"On this tour particularly we want to build on what we did in the February tri-series and become that little bit more effective in creating goal scoring opportunities and we want to go back to where we were in being harder to break down defensively. For us it's going to be refining those two aspects of our game."

Readings said Spain were an opponent that reflected some of the characteristics of the Ferns' own rise up the rankings while they would be tested by some traits which mirror the powerhouse Spanish men's side.

"It's going to be a very tough test. They are a team much like us that have really grown and improved in the last few years.

"They are team that have beaten England recently, they are team that don't concede many goals and they are also team that's got very good individuals that can break you down. They are similar to the men's team in some ways but different in others and we know it's going to be very tough to score goals against them.

The games will be played on Wednesday and Friday (NZT) in Guadalajara and La Roda respectively.

Football Ferns squad: Goalkeepers: Cushla Lichtwark, Erin Nayler. Defenders: CJ Bott, Abby Erceg, Meikayla Moore, Ria Percival, Ali Riley, Rebekah Stott. Midfielders: Katie Bowen, Daisy Cleverley, Betsy Hassett, Katie Hoyle, Annalie Longo, Evie Millynn, Kirsty Yallop, Forwards: Sarah Gregorius, Amber Hearn, Jasmine Pereira, Rosie White, Hannah Wilkinson