Spain face Turkey in Istanbul, kick-off at 19:00 hours (BST), looking to bring back all three points home from their 2010 World Cup qualifier. If results go their way on Wednesday night, a victory could leave the Euro winners eight points ahead of the chasing pack.

Last weekend Fernando Torres’ team grabbed a 1-0 win over their midweek rivals at the Santiago Bernabeu. The hard-fought victory stretched their lead at the top of their qualifying group to six points. The valuable home triumph over Turkey took Spain seven points ahead of Fatih Terem’s team and six ahead of second-placed Bosnia, who surprised Belgium 4-2 away to move up to second.

Vicente Del Bosque’s team remain unbeaten in their five qualification games and lead Group 5 with 15 points out if 15. The fight for second-place is currently being won by Bosnia, closely followed by Turkey and Belgium.

Spain hold the upper-hand in head-to-head meetings with Turkey with four wins, four draws and just the one defeat back in 1954. The national team however have never won in Istanbul, drawing three times and falling to their one and only loss to the Turkish national team over half a century ago.

The squad, which arrived in Istanbul on Monday, expect a difficult game at the Ali Sami Yen Stadium. The home team require a win to keep alive their hopes of a top-two finish, although realistically, Spain are favourites to grab first place and direct qualification to South Africa 2010; leaving second-place as the only real viable option. The team finishing second will face a runner-up from another group over two-legs for the right to appear at the next World Cup.

The match in Istanbul will be Spain’s last qualifier of the current season. The next round of Group 5 games did not kick-off until September when the Red Fury receive the visit of Belgium on September 5 and Estonia on September 9. Spain’s two last games are both on foreign, versus Armenia on October 10 and Bosnia on October 14.