Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque has praised his side for ‘a complete game’ as they routed Ireland 4-0 at the 2012 European Championships on Thursday.
The European and world champions were far too good for the Irish, with Fernando Torres putting them ahead early, before second-half strikes from David Silva, Torres and Cesc Fabregas sealed a comfortable win against an Irish side who tried to deprive Spain of time and space on the ball.
“I thought we played a complete game. We had the majority of possession tonight,” Del Bosque said.
The Spain boss, who opted to use Fabregas as a ‘false number nine’ in their opening game, a 1-1 draw with Italy, was impressed with Torres after he handed him a start against Ireland.
“We felt that Fernando was going to be the type of player who could take advantage of that (possession). He is a player who can expose spaces with penetrating pace,” Del Bosque said.
“We have a squad of 23 players and all of them are capable of playing. We put Fernando in today in order for him to do exactly what he did.”
The boss also praised his side’s defensive display, along with their attacking football.
“It wasn’t easy as Ireland were very compact at the back. The most important thing from my point of view is that we showed security on the ball and played from one side of the pitch to the other. We had 26 shots on goal; that’s an important statistic,” he said.
“I was impressed by our central defenders who handled their aerial threat very well. From there we were quite comfortable in our build-up play. We created danger despite our opponents trying to deprive us of space.”