GNIEWINO (Poland), June 21: Alvaro Arbeloa’s performances at Euro 2012 have drawn criticism back home in Spain and France will be looking to dangerous winger Franck Ribery to exploit his potential weakness in Saturday’s quarter-final.

Arbeloa has occasionally looked shaky at right back in Spain’s three Group ‘C’ games in Gdansk, particularly against forwards like Ribery with pace and trickery, prompting calls for coach Vicente del Bosque to replace him with Juanfran.

A far more attack-minded player who is solid in defence, Juanfran is better at forging down the flank and firing over dangerous crosses than Arbeloa, which would have the added bonus of forcing Ribery to drop deeper to defend.

However, Del Bosque is unlikely to gamble on a player who only made his Spain debut at the end of May.

At a news conference on Thursday, Juanfran gave his full backing to Arbeloa but said he was ready to step up if needed.

“He is my team-mate and I will defend him to the death,” he said. “Right now the coach has placed his trust in Alvaro for that position and I have enormous respect for that.”

Juanfran, 27, insisted the Spanish would concentrate on making life hard for Bayern Munich star Ribery.

“We will have to be at him all the time. He has so much quality that he could score a goal at any moment or find a colleague with a threaded pass. We will have to get on top of him as he is one of their top players.

“We have to ensure he doesn’t have a good day. We must mark him closely and make sure he doesn’t do us any damage,” the defender said.—Reuters