Reaction to the win
“It’s a great victory, mainly because we’ve made it through to a final and it means we’re one of the best two teams in the competition. Italy’s unbeaten run obviously had to come to an end some time soon because all of them do eventually. Italy have broken a world record (number of games undefeated), their numbers are incredible. Today we were true to ourselves in terms of the type of team we are and in terms of what we want to do on the pitch. The players played very well and they’re really happy. Now we need to recover and think about the final.”
Key to victory
“For me, the key was the personality we showed and the fact that we went for it from the start. We were really good at finding gaps when they tried to press and we were able to try to attack their defensive line. The goals came from situations when the movement of our attacking midfielders helped us find space for players breaking from deep. The players got it right and showed their quality. We could’ve scored more and won more comfortably. The message at half-time was not to hold onto a 2-0 lead but to try to score more goals. Italy, as you’d expect, decided to sit deep but, even so, we were able to create more chances to finish the game off earlier. Credit to them for the move which led to them getting back into the game and they gave themselves a chance to equalise. But I’m satisfied with what I saw overall.”
Most complete performance under Luis Enrique?
“We can take a lot of satisfaction from this game but I don’t think it’s our most complete performance. In any case, we analyse games that took place in the past at the time and then we forget about them. In modern football, you need to think about the present. We need to focus on the final, improve upon a few aspects of our play from today and try to be better in every game.”
Gavi
“Those of us who know him know where he can still improve. He played really well, Obviously, it’s not at all normal for a player (so young) to show such personality and play football like this. But he’s the type of central midfielder who fits perfectly into our system. He can play between the lines, doesn’t lose the ball, can play decisive passes, is in exceptional physical condition, can impose himself on the game, as you’ve seen. He’s not just the future of the national team, he’s also the present, fortunately for us.”
The players
“Ferran Torres picked up a knock which had got worse by half-time and when he went out for the second half he was in a bit of pain. We won’t take any risks with anyone so their clubs don’t need to worry. Gavi was exceptional on his debut but it’s not only the youngsters who played well. Marcos Alonso, who hadn’t been with us for a long time. Mikel Oyarzabal and Sarabia. Ferran is one of our key players, he has lots to offer, not only goals and assists but also his defensive work, which is vital in this team. The central defenders. Cesar (Azpilicueta). Busi (Sergio Busquets) was great as always. Koke. I don’t want to leave anyone out. The substitutes that came on in the second half, Mikel Merino and Sergio Roberto. Every player wants to add something to the team and that’s really positive for any manager.
Youth and experience
“There are some really young players in the squad but also some veterans who play as if they are 17 years old. Both the youngsters and the ones who are a bit older know that they need to look at and be like the veteran players. The likes of Busquets, Koke, Cesar Azpilicueta and David de Gea have shown them the way.”
Reading the press
“I don’t normally read the press. I’m sure I won’t read anything tomorrow. What I’ll do tomorrow is analyse the game in detail, there are a few things we can improve on in terms of positioning but we had just one-and-a-half training sessions to get across what we wanted to do so for the players to perform the way they did…I’m really happy for them. I feel really lucky to be the manager of a country like ours, which has 40-50 players who are good enough to play in the national team. Picking the right ones is often difficult but seeing how they played gives me a lot of confidence.”