Coach seeks improvement despite easy win

KOCHI: Spain put in one of its 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.

“There 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,” he said.

“It’s 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’s 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,” Denia elaborated on his tactics against Iran.

“It 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.”

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’s second goal.

Denia’s Iranian counterpart Abbas Chamanian lauded the winners, and conceded that his side had shown his opponents too much respect in the first half.

It was clear that if we attack Iran through the middle, we give them space to counter attack SANTIAGO DENIA, Spain coach A problem was the (lack of a) connection between the defenders and the forwards.

ABBAS CHAMANIAN, Iran coach