European champions Spain face their biggest test before the World Cup finals on Wednesday, away to France in a high- profile friendly. Spain have not won in France for almost 42 years, and the memories of defeat against "Les Blues" in the 2006 World Cup round of 16 are still painful.

"This will be an important test for us," said Carles Puyol, Spain's defensive lynchpin, on Sunday.

"We were a bit unlucky to lose to them in 2006," he added. "They are always a good team, and they will make things difficult for us."

The journeys of "La Roja” to Paris have rarely been happy occasions.

Their last trip to France, for the friendly which inaugurated the Stade de France in 1998, was a 1-0 defeat in 1998. "La Roja" then performed poorly at the 1998 World Cup finals, failing to reach the second round.

In 1984, Spain lost the

European Championship final to the France of Michel Platini in Paris.

There are no surprises in the Spain squad, which was announced by national manager Vicente del Bosque on Friday.

Sevilla striker Alvaro Negredo has been given the nod ahead of Athletic Bilbao's Fernando Llorente.

The only (very small) controversy in Spain surrounding

Del Bosque's choices centres on whether Diego Lopez of Villarreal, Andres Palop of Sevilla or Victor Valdes of Barcelona should be the first-choice keeper, behind Iker Casillas of Real Madrid and Liverpool's Jose Reina.

Apart from that, there is a general consensus that Del Bosque is picking the right players and preparing well for South Africa.

He said on Friday that "this list (of players) is not the list for South Africa...There are

many players qualified to join (the squad) and we will be attentive to their development this spring."

Del Bosque denied the allegation made in the media that he had asked Liverpool coach Rafa Benitez to be careful with the physical state of striker Fernando Torres, with the World Cup in mind.

Spain have no injury problems now that Torres and Barca playmaker Xavi are fit again.

Spain's other pre-World Cup friendlies will be against Lithuania, South Korea and Poland.

Embattled France manager Raymond Domenech, meanwhile, is hoping that a win on Wednesday will reduce the pressure on him.

France needed a controversial play-off against Ireland to qualify for the World Cup, with Thierry Henry clearly handling the ball in the build-up to the crucial goal.

Domenech has raised eyebrows by calling up for the friendly players that he has not previously looked towards, such as Hatem Ben Arfa, Mickael Ciani, Benoit Cheyrou and Louis Saha.