SEVILLE, Spain — Luis Enrique remained upbeat after his first loss as Spain coach, despite admitting he could have killed his players for their “awful” first-half performance in Monday’s 3-2 UEFA Nations League defeat to England.
Raheem Sterling scored twice and Marcus Rashford was also on target as England stormed into a three-goal lead by the break en route to their first competitive win in 31 years against Spain on Spanish soil.
Paco Alcacer and Sergio Ramos pulled goals back for the hosts in the second period but the damage had been done in the first 38 minutes.
“Every coach has their own method,” Luis Enrique said in a postgame news conference when asked what he said to his players at the interval. “The normal thing would have been to kill them, but I was wonderful with them. I encouraged them, I didn’t change anything.”
Luis Enrique, who was appointed as Spain coach in the summer following their disappointing performance at the World Cup, had overseen three wins in his first three matches in charge.
However, he preferred to take the positives from the loss to England, La Roja’s first competitive defeat at home in 15 years, and backed his team to become stronger for the experience.
“I told [the players] that great national teams are made by suffering,” he added. “We pushed them back after [half-time]. It’s a shame we didn’t get the second goal earlier because I’m sure the supporters would have scored the third.
“But it was not our best night, that’s clear. The first half was awful, we have to recognise that. It was a good second half, though. The ball circulation improved, we pressed better, pushed them back into their area. We had chances to come back.”
A bad night for Spain was a good night for England as Gareth Southgate fielded a side with an average age of just 23. Of the starting players, only Kieran Trippier was over 25.
“I thought we played with huge courage,” Southgate said. “We knew to come here and defend for 90 minutes, we would be unlikely to get a result. We needed to be brave with the ball.
“We talked about the threat our front three have, that they need to believe in themselves, but we have to get the ball to them as well. We had to get passes out of the Spain press spot on. You run the risk of the losing ball, but when we got out we were a huge threat on the counter-attack. The quality and bravery were the things that impressed me the most.”
Southgate, who feels the win will bode his young squad well for future challenges, was particularly happy with the contribution of his front three, Sterling (who ended a 27-game wait for an international goal), Rashford and Harry Kane.
“All three of them understandably had questions asked,” he added. “All three responded with real top performances. The quality of the decision making, passing, finishing was top. As a team, to play the way they did, [this will be a] great reference point for them for the future.”