Manchester City midfielder David Silva has admitted that it will be tough for Spain to win Euro 2012 without David Villa.
Villa missed a large section of Barcelona's La Liga campaign after sustaining a broken leg in December and has failed to recover in time for the tournament.
Villa and Silva were teammates at Valencia, and Silva believes that success at the championships will be more challenging as Spain bid to become the first country to win three consecutive trophies after their Euro 2008 and 2010 World Cup triumphs.
"It is a new situation for us. The truth is I don't know what life for the national team will be like without Villa," Silva told Marca.
"Hopefully it will be the same but 'El Guaje' is a very important player for us, he is pure goal. We are going to miss him both on and off the pitch.
"We can always dream about it, of course, but we have to be conscious that other teams are equally strong. It can happen, but nobody should think it will be easy."
Villa is Spain's all-time record goalscorer with 51 goals in 82 games.
Matt Cotton
