According to Tasnim news agency, Luis Enrique, the head coach of the Spanish national football team, last night (Thursday) took his team one step closer to the 2022 World Cup. Enrique, whose side won from the penalty spot in the 26th minute thanks to Pablo Sarabia’s one-goal goal at home to Greece, now top Group B in the qualifying table with one point more than Sweden, who lost 2-0 at home to Georgia. The 2022 World Cup is in continental Europe. Meanwhile, the Matadors’ next game is next Sunday at home against Sweden, which is a life and death sentence for both teams, because the winner of this game will advance directly to the final stage of the World Cup.
“It is clear that we will play on Sunday to secure our place in the World Cup,” Luis Enrique told reporters after his men ‘s victory in Athens. We will face an opponent who will make more attacks on our goal on paper, but we will also play not to draw but to win. We go to the field on Sunday to get three points and there, like in this game, we try, put pressure on the opponent and attack.
Enrique stressed the fair result of his team’s game against Greece: “Today I am very happy and satisfied with everything, but this should not make us feel comfortable. In situations like what our team has, every victory is very valuable. We are focusing on our game and it was very difficult. Machon’s right-hander had a good performance and took control of the game. It is a pity that we could not make better use of our opportunities. However, we were able to neutralize the opponent’s attacks and prevent them from positioning.
“It’s hard for me to say I liked the result,” the Matador coach said about whether he was happy with the result of his men’s game. When you play away from home and you are looking for a result, it is better to win the game against a team like Utah. Our team performed well in terms of approach and organization of the game, as well as in understanding the instructions I gave to the players. We showed that we are a motivated team, but what mattered was the victory. This Greece was much better than the Greek we faced in the first round. We had a good performance in pressing and thanks to the coherence we had in our game, we managed to win. We dropped a bit in the second half, but our players are also human, not cars.