The victory that Spain had in the Nations League on Sunday is something that Spain’s head coach Luis de la Fuente is hoping will be the beginning of a new winning era for La Roja.
After a scoreless draw after 120 minutes of play in Rotterdam at the De Kuip stadium, which is home to Feyenoord, they prevailed against Croatia 5-4 on penalties to take the match.
Since their success at the European Championship in 2012, Spain had not won a trophy in almost a decade, and they were eliminated in the round of 16 at the World Cup in Qatar only a year ago.
De la Fuente, whose nomination to succeed Luis Enrique came as somewhat of a surprise, having spent several years working in the youth football department of the Spanish federation.
“I know this group very well, and I have seen them win at every level,” De la Fuente said at a press conference.
“I am happy, happy for them, happy for the staff, and happy for Spain,” she said. “I am happy.” I have hope that we can recapture the feeling that we had at the 2010 World Cup, which was that we were happy to represent our country.
He went on to say, “I am familiar with each of these generations. Obviously, victory gives you more sparkle, and I anticipate that the future will bring me even more happiness.
“Every endeavor is better created on a platform of triumph, and this provides us with greater power, confidence, and serenity.
“In most cases, this pattern will be repeated in the future, and we will become accustomed to winning.”
Coach Zlatko Dalic of Croatia said that it was “hard” for the team to not win the title, especially considering that Croatia had never before won any kind of prize.
The country from central Europe came in third place in the World Cup in both 1998 and 2022, and it finished second to France in 2018.
According to Dalic, “it is very difficult for all of us after these finals. We feel sorry for not winning the trophy because of the atmosphere and everything else, but we should be proud.”
“Having won three medals is an incredible accomplishment, which will go down in history.
This demonstrates that there is still a great deal of promise and that we are capable of doing a great deal.
Additionally, Dalic expressed the hope that the team’s captain, Luka Modric, would not decide to end his career in international competition as was previously rumored.
The head coach went on to say that “Luka said he will take his own decision, and that is the thing that is most fair.”
“He had an outstanding performance and ran for a total of 120 minutes for the second time in the last four days. I really do hope that he remains with us since he is one of our most valuable players.