Casillas may have lost on the pitch... but his wife lit up media centre

Stadium media centres are never the most glamorous of places with the press pack sweating over laptops. But Spanish World Cup games are a different affair.

The presence of Sara Carbonero, a TV reporter for Spanish crew Mediaset but slightly better known as the wife of Iker Casillas, certainly brightened up the place on Friday.

Glamorous: Iker Casillas' wife Sara Carbonero is a TV reporter for Spanish crew Mediaset

Vicente Del Bosque was at pains to emphasise that Spain are not Barcelona on the eve of battle.

Maybe so, but 45 per cent of his starting line-up - five of 11 - were plucked from the Nou Camp.

The Barca numbers in the squad were a little higher than reality with FIFA listing Cesc Fabregas with his former club and not Chelsea.

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Esporte Club Bahia are the usual home team at this gleaming stadium and they've been playing here for over a year.

However, one of their recent star turns, unluckily, left the club the month before they moved in - Kleberson.

The 2002 World Cup winner and one-time 'future of Manchester United's midfield' now plies his trade in the second tier in the US. Not one of Fergie's finest buys.

 

Louis van Gaal is famed for his meticulous planning but even by his own sky-high standards, the incoming Manchester United boss pulled off no mean feat.

Holland's starting team lined up with numbers 1 through 11 on their backs. Van Gaal might just have settled on his team a while back.

Happy Holland: Louis van Gaal high fives Robin Van Persie after the frontman's brilliant header against Spain

 

Dutch fans in their droves turned the streets of Salvador a blinding orange before the game and it was also hard to avoid former Oranje frontmen this week.

Ruud van Nistelrooy was the first to cause a stir at training mid-week and Pierre van Hooijdonk was mobbed by his countrymen outside the arena here.