Raul seeks heat from Spanish crowd

Raul believes Spain will benefit from the warmth of the crowd as well as the heat of the sun when they start their Euro 2004 campaign with what is virtually a home game against Russia on Saturday.

The Algarve stadium, between the towns of Faro and Loule, is just a 40-minute drive to Ayamonte over the border in Spain and over 15,000 Spanish fans are expected at the Group A game.

"At last, we're going to feel real backing from the crowd when we play in the European Championship," Raul told reporters on Friday.

"We're all looking forward to seeing the ground full of Spanish fans."

Spain, who go on to face Greece and Portugal in the group phase, flew into sweltering temperatures on Portugal's southern coast.

An evening kick-off on Saturday will mean some relief but the Spaniards do have a plan to make the most of the conditions.

"If the heat plays a part it should be in our favour," Raul said. "For that reason we want to play the game at a high intensity.

"If we can set a high tempo, our quality should shine through."

Spain in general, and Raul in particular, did not show too much quality in the last European Championship, when they lost to Norway and needed fortunate wins over Slovenia and Yugoslavia to make the quarter-finals.

Raul's last contribution was to fire a penalty over the bar in the final minute of the quarter-final against France, thus missing the chance to take the game into extra-time.

Raul has been in poor form for Real Madrid this season but he maintained his excellent scoring run for Spain over the qualifiers for Euro 2004, with seven goals in 10 appearances as Inaki Saez's made it through with a playoff win against Norway.

"I feel that I'm in good form," Raul said. "I'm really optimistic about this tournament, as is the rest of the squad."

"The atmosphere in the camp is good and friendly. It's going to be important to win the first game to keep morale high."