Spain put in one of their best displays to beat a resolute Iran side. Facing a well-organised backline, the European champions used the flanks effectively to score thrice. However, despite their domination throughout the match, Spain coach Santiago Denia insisted his side has a lot to improve upon in order to go a couple of steps further and win the title.\u2009(Spain vs Iran highlights)<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is room for improvement on both sides of the field. We are still conceding goals, and we are creating chances but not finishing them off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great that we have six players who have scored goals in this competition, but we need to keep creating chances and finish them off. We always want to have more possession, but the idea is to move the ball forward. Considering Iran\u2019s previous games, (one of which) they won 4-0 against Germany with very less possession, we had to identify where to keep the ball and how to move forward,\u201d Denia elaborated on his tactics against Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was clear to us that if we are very direct when attacking Iran through the middle, we may give them space to counter attack. I understood that the way to play against them was to be better with more players on the sides of the field to avoid attacking through the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a last-four encounter against Mali up next, Spain will have to wait till Monday to find out the seriousness of the injury suffered by midfielder Sergio Gomez, who was stretchered off shortly after scoring the team\u2019s second goal.<\/p>\n
Denia\u2019s Iranian counterpart Abbas Chamanian lauded the winners, and conceded that his side had shown his opponents too much respect in the first half.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely (we showed them too much respect). I said this in my talk to the players as we did not get a good start in the first half. Our players are still young. A problem today was the (lack of a) connection between the defenders and the forwards,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Chamanian, however, credited his team for their run to the quarterfinal. \u201cI think the best result from these five games is the positive vision shown by my country. This is a generation that can build our future (in football),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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