Champions Spain determined to think positively after defeat

Perisic lashed in an 87th-minute shot in a thrilling match to inflict Spain’s first defeat in 15 games at the European Championship since losing to Portugal in Euro 2004.

Spain’s Aritz Aduriz reacts after Croatia’s Ivan Perisic scored their side¿s second goal during the Euro 2016 Group D soccer match between Croatia and Spain at the Nouveau Stade in Bordeaux, France, Tuesday, June 21, 2016.

Spain had dispatched Turkey and the Czech Republic by a combined score of 4-0 but were stunned by Croatia in the final minutes of their game.

Croatia will take on a third-placed team in Lens on Saturday and are in what seems a much easier side of the draw in the knockout stages.

“We can’t blame him”, said Del Bosque was quoted as saying by the Mirror. It was an unusual game because we could have had a favourable result and qualified in first place.

In the final moments of the first half, Ivan Perisic delivered a cross to Kalinic and the Croatian striker scored the first goal conceded by Spain in 734 minutes of Euro play going back to Summer 2012. His ideal right footed cross found Nikola Kalinic in front of De Gea and a little flick was all that it took Fiorentina forward to score an equalizer in the 45th minute. “The second was a counter-attack”.

Both teams had entered the match at the Stade the Bordeaux guaranteed a spot in the knockout stage.

Del Bosque did not offer tiredness as an excuse after he chose the same 11 who had played most of the previous two games.

“It wasn’t the path we wanted to take, it’s true, but that’s football”, Del Bosque added.

“We will try to recover from this disappointment and prepare for Monday”.

With two 1-0 wins against Northern Ireland and the Ukrainians either side of a scoreless draw against, Poland finished in second place in Group C on goal difference.

“When we play against the really top teams, we’ll have to give it that little bit more”. The Group C win in Marseille propelled Poland further than they have ever gone in a European Championship and they will meet Switzerland in the last-16. “The team spirit helped us and we were fighting until the last minute”.

“They’re playing well, before today we were playing well, and even today we haven’t played badly”.

Argentina will seek its first major title since the 1993 Copa – and its first since Messi’s debut in 2005 – when it plays Chile or Colombia on Sunday in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

“We missed our main players”, 31-year-old goalkeeper Danijel Subasic said, “but these young guys have shown that they are here for a reason”. “We deserve it, for all the good work we’ve been doing all these years”.