Salvador (Brazil), June 14 (IANS): Spanish striker Fernando Torres struggled to put up a brave front after a rude shock in their World Cup opening encounter against the Netherlands and hoped that the defending champions would bounce back strongly like they did four years ago in South Africa.
Spain Friday suffered a shocking 1-5 thrashing against the Netherlands, for whom the win was a sweet revenge of the 0-1 loss in the ill-tempered 2010 final in South Africa.
In the 2010 World Cup, Spain had also lost their opening match against Switzerland but then went on to lift the trophy. Now they are taking inspiration from their maiden triumph in South Africa.
It was the fifth occasion on which the reigning World Champions have begun their defence with a loss. Spain now are left with little margin for error in their remaining group games against Chile and Australia.
“We came up short on the night. We didn’t have any solution to the Netherlands’ gameplan. We gave their full-backs too much space and they had all the time they needed to play balls in behind us. They created a lot of chances on the counter, and it doesn’t matter how many goals they scored. We just can’t make any excuses. They were better, as simple as that,” Torres told FIFA.com
Spanish centre-half Sergio Ramos was honest in admitting that they had a negative mindset after they fell behind.
“Our mindset was negative from the moment we fell behind. You start thinking things you shouldn’t, and that was reflected in the final scoreline. We’re still the same players and we know we can beat anyone. That’s the attitude we’ll be taking into the Chile game.
Torres said Spain are capable of turning around things quickly.
“Unfortunately, we went through the same kind of thing in South Africa,” recalled the Chelsea striker, who came on as a substitute for World Cup debutant Diego Costa in the second-half.
Ramos said the team now should focus on beating Chile.
“This team has experience and has been through some bad times. It’s been able to come back from setbacks like this and that’s what makes it great. We can’t sit around feeling sorry for ourselves. We need to start thinking right now about beating Chile,” he said.