Spain's Vilda buoyed by France success
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
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A "real boost" was how Spain coach Jorge Vilda described his side's impressive 2-0 Women's Under-17 Group B victory against France, who "froze" according to Guy Ferrier.
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Guy Ferrier, France coach
We started the match well and created a few chances. We should have scored but didn't and then all of a sudden the girls froze and stopped playing. We came up against a very good Spain team who played with better rhythm, more aggression than us and our girls seemed scared. I told them in the dressing room five minutes ago that they were competing at the highest level tonight and they weren't able to raise their game.
There aren't many positives. They dominated us technically, athletically, mentally – we were lacking in all those areas so we have to bounce back and get back to our normal level. It won't be easy against Germany as they're a good side but we've still got a chance. We have to lift ourselves and react, show a bit more fight.
At the moment we need to recover as the girls are devastated, they didn't expect that. But we're not eliminated – it's up to us to find a way to get through. We'll get our suspended and injured players back and we'll have a different team against Germany.
Jorge Vilda, Spain coach
We knew how important this game was and the team approached it like a final. The key was our good defensive set-up, the players all did a good job there, and then when we won the ball we were able to cause them problems. It was 2-0 but it could have been more.
In the opening minutes, when we were finding our feet in the game, France were winning the second balls and that was causing us trouble. We weren't playing at the same competitive level as we did later in the game.
The important thing is not to lose your first match but we've done more than that – we've gone and beaten France who are the reigning world champions, so that's a real boost for the team, going into the next games.
[Goalscorer] Mireya García Boa is a very decisive player with a lot of goals in her and she showed that today, both in her attacking and defensive work. She had a complete game, going past the full-back and getting crosses in, and getting a goal – you can't get better than that.