Luis Enrique: We were exceptional but we still have room for improvement
Spain head coach Luis Enrique was understandably delighted with his team’s display and was full of praise for debutant Alejandro Balde, goalscorer Marco Asensio and Rodri, who played in an unfamiliar central defensive role:
“When things work out exactly as you’d hoped, it’s an amazing feeling. We were exceptional in our control of the ball and at stopping them from causing us problems.”
“Our objective in every single game is to dominate the game and to do that, you have to have the ball. We want our opponents to find it hard to play against us and get frustrated. Our pressing was so good today too. But we still have room for improvement.“
“We know that Rodri has the skillset to play in central defence. He’s a complete player, which makes his very versatile. I’m lucky to have so many players that can play different roles and make a big contribution.”
“I don’t like playing with the same team in every game. We’re not here to just play with 11 players. I don’t think I’ve ever named an unchanged team.”
“We want to have lots of positivity around the team, which is great but tomorrow we’ll start thinking about the Germany game. We’re not going to win every game by such a big margin.”
“It was the perfect moment to give Balde his debut. It was good to give Alba, and Busquets too, a rest. We’ve not had much time to work with Balde but he was flying.”
“Asensio was incredible. He’s full of confidence, his all-round play was fantastic. He’s a top player.”