Ufarte celebrates Spanish strength

Spain reached the final of the 2003/04 UEFA European Under-19 Championship in dramatic fashion on Wednesday night, defeating Ukraine 4-1 on penalties after a pulsating encounter in Lausanne had finished 2-2 after 120 minutes. The Iberian side now meet Turkey, who eliminated tournament hosts Switzerland in the other semi-final, in Nyon on Saturday. uefa.com rounds up the reaction.

SPAIN 2-2 UKRAINE (after extra time; Spain won 4-1 on penalties)
Armando Ufarte, Spain coach
It was a fine match against a very good team. We had to work very hard to win the game, but we managed to keep our concentration and finally came out on top. We've lost penalty shoot-outs in the past, but our players were good enough and strong enough to see us through this one. It was a very difficult match. We knew that Ukraine had beaten Denmark and England in the qualifying competition and had done well in this tournament here. We're happy to have beaten a fine side, but we had to work right up until the end. We have played Turkey before but you never know how the final will turn out, I think that it is going to be a very difficult match. The players are very tired after 30 minutes' extra time in such heat, and I hope that they'll be able to recover in time. We'll now prepare as well as we can, and hopefully we'll produce a good performance in the match itself. It's natural that we will celebrate this semi-final win, but we'll very quickly be concentrating on Saturday's match after that.

Yevgen Kotelnikov, Ukraine assistant coach
We're disappointed of course, but one of the teams had to lose this match. It's a big moment and a good achievement for any team to play in a semi-final. We consider it to have been a very positive effort to have reached the semi-final.