Monreal - Spain still have the hunger

Nacho Monreal says the Spanish national squad is as hungry as ever for success - despite winning the last three major tournaments.

Once considered perennial underachievers, Spain have been in the ascendancy since they lifted the European Championship in 2008. The country's first World Cup followed two years later and Spain retained their European crown last year.

Whispers of their possible decline began when Brazil overpowered the world champions in this year's Confederations Cup final but Spain are in excellent shape in a tough World Cup qualifying group - needing just one win from their final two fixtures to reach Brazil 2014.

And Monreal, who has 14 caps for his country, says Spain's appetite for silverware has not diminished.

"The national side has been on a positive run for many years now and it is difficult to achieve that, especially [winning] one after the other," Monreal told Arsenal Player.

"Aside from that, the manager is maintaining the same group, it is always the same team getting together with three or four new faces, but the group is basically the same, and the desire and the ambition to win another World Cup is still there.

"It is true that there can be some moments of taking it easy, there can be, but it really depends on us the players.

"We need to continue being ambitious, to want to win another World Cup, and logically we want to carry on in that form. I can vouch for that because I have been part of the group, I see the players that still have great desire, a lot of hunger to win another World Cup, and that is very positive."