Jorge Vilda and Irene Paredes on Scotland’s Spanish influence
Vilda: “This is the first time we’re going to face Scotland in qualifying. Even though we haven’t played against them yet, we know them well, we’ve done lots of analysis on them. We also know their head coach well, Pedro Martínez Losa. He’s put his stamp on the team, you can see the work he’s done. The way they play short passes out from the back and keep the ball well is quite ‘Spanish’, it’s already noticeable and they do it really effectively. We’ve seen it in all their games. Apart from that, one of the characteristics of Pedro’s teams is that they always try to attack, they press high and that’s what we’re expecting from them. They’ll set out to win the game because we’re the two countries that are expected to fight for automatic qualification for the World Cup.”
“Facing a Spanish coach can definitely make things more difficult for us. Pedro will probably know even more about us than our opponents normally do. I’m sure he follows the game in Spain and he knows the Spanish players really well. He’ll know how to set his team up to make life tough for us, that’s what we’re preparing for. I think it’ll be a good game, it’ll be open because I know that they’ll want to beat us. And also because this Scotland team is becoming more and more ‘Spanish’. I think Ukraine have similar intentions. It’s funny that in a group of five teams, there are three Spanish coaches.”
“I don’t think it’s a handicap, I think it’s flattering that foreign teams want Spanish coaches. That means they want to play the way we do in Spain and that’s because of the players, in my opinion. I think Pedro, who’s been with Scotland a little longer, since the start of the season, and Lluis (Cortés) with Ukraine are managing to do it.”
“I think that’s given them an extra something, we know about the traditional style of the British teams but by adding a Spanish touch to their play they’ve become more dangerous and effective.”
Paredes: “It’ll be an intense game, it’ll probably be tougher than the one the other day (against the Faroe Islands), more demanding. On top of that, it’s against a Spanish coach who knows us really well. They’ll try to find ways to hurt us but we have enough about us to be able to counter that, play our own game and win the match.
“As Jorge said, other countries have hired Spanish coaches because they like how we play and the want to imitate us. So we’re going to come up against teams that want to play like us, press like us. But I really believe in this team, the way we work. We’re also lucky to have some of the best players around so it doesn’t really bother us how other teams play against us. We can adapt to any situation, we’ll just get on with it.”
Vilda on Scotland’s ‘cup final’
“Football is never logical. Scotland only drew against Ukraine the other day but they’re a great team that are good enough to play in the European Championships, even though they won’t be at the finals. They’ve shown that in the games they’ve played. After dropping points the other day, this is basically a cup final for them if they want to qualify for the World Cup and the three points are also crucial for us if we want to be there too.”
“We try to perform to the best of our ability in each game, we want to show our fans both in the stadium and watching at home what the Spanish national team is capable of. Tomorrow’s opponents will be tougher than our last one, it’ll be a high quality game.”
Jenni Hermoso on attending Monday’s Ballon d’Or gala
“Of course we have to enjoy (Monday) night but we’ve also got a game to play (on Tuesday). They’ve allowed us to go and we’re grateful for that but we have to remember that we’ve got a big game the next day. Hopefully we can win again.”