The Spanish national team manager Vicente del Bosque praised the performance of these players following their 2-1 win over Puerto Rico. The Spanish national team was playing in this friendly match ahead of the start of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Spain in the group containing the likes of France and Finland, which means that they need to be at their best in order to have any chance of qualification to the World Cup. The 2-1 win over Puerto Rico was extremely essential for the team according to the manager Vicente del Bosque, who made some crucial changes in some areas of the pitch.
One of the major changes of the arrival of the new Arsenal midfielder Santi Cazorla into the first-team. He immediately repaid the faith of the manager by scoring in the match, while the other goal was scored by the former Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas. Spain were clearly the better team in the match, but Puerto Rico managed to score one goal that kept the match in the balance. Their goal in the 65th minute meant that they were always with a chance of getting a draw out of the current European and world champions.
“We’re not making excuses. At no time did we underestimate the opponent because we never underestimate anyone. We know our world and European titles afford us some prestige but we played with passion. We played the whole game in their half, they didn’t cause us any problems in defence apart from when they scored their goal. We just lacked a little finesse and good fortune and hit the post twice,” said the Spanish national team manager after the match. Spain will be kicking off their 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign with a match against Belarus on September 11.