Anthem?

SPAIN Real Federacion Espanola de Futbol Calle Alberto Bosch, 13 28014 Madrid Official Website

Oh, I hope - I hope - I hope!

SQUAD

Goalkeepers Santiago Cañizares José Francisco Molina Iker Casillas

Defenders Agustin Aranzábal Sergi Paco Jemez Juan Velasco Abelardo Michel Salgado Iván Helguera Fernando Hierro

Midfielders Josep Guardiola Vicente Engonga Fran Gaizka Mendieta Juan Carlos Valeron Gerard Lopez

Strikers Joseba Etxeberria Pedro Munitis Ismaël Ursaíz Alfonso Raúl Gonzalez

GROUP MATCHES
Rotterdan 13.6.2000 (18.00) Spain v Norway 0-1	Amsterdam 18.6.2000 (18.00) Spain v Slovenia 2-1	Bruges 21.6.2000 (18.00) Spain v Yugoslavia 4-3

SPAIN QUALIFY FOR THE QUARTER FINALS (lose 1-2 to France)

EURO 2000 TEAM STATISTICS
Team Stats
Games Played:	4
Red Cards :	0
Yellow Cards :	9
Shots On Target :	27
Shots Off Target :	24
Fouls Committed :	79
Fouled :	78
Corners Won :	18
Corners Against :	1

Player Stats
Goalkeepers
Player		Minutes Played	Goals Conceded	Clean Sheets	Shots Saved	Penalties Saved	Shootout Saves	Shootout Goals Conceded
1	Santiago Canizares	270	6	0	6	0	0	0
13	Iker Casillas	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
22	Jose Molina	90	1	0	3	0	0	0

---

Outfield
Player		Minutes Played	Goals Scored	Assists	Red Cards	Yellow Cards	Shots on Target	Shots off Target	Fouls Committed	Fouls Against
2	Michel Salgado	315	0	0	0	2	0	1	6	3
3	Agustin Aranzabal	270	0	0	0	1	0	0	4	0
4	Josep Guardiola	351	0	0	0	1	3	1	4	2
5	Abelardo Fernandez	270	0	0	0	0	0	1	7	2
6	Fernando Hierro	180	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	1
7	Ivan Helguera	185	0	0	0	1	0	2	5	6
8	Fran Gonzalez	98	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	1
9	Pedro Munitis	118	1	1	0	0	1	1	3	4
10	Raul	360	1	1	0	0	6	9	5	9
11	Alfonso Perez	266	2	0	0	1	5	5	8	13
12	Sergi Barjuan	90	0	0	0	1	0	0	3	0
14	Gerard	14	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
15	Vincente Engonga	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
16	Gaizka Mendieta	251	2	1	0	0	7	1	7	13
17	Joseba Exteberria	249	1	1	0	1	2	1	5	14
18	Paco Jemez	244	0	0	0	1	0	1	7	5
19	Juan Velasco	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
20	Ismael Urzaiz	169	0	0	0	0	2	1	4	1
21	Juan Carlos Valeron	168	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2

Camacho regrets not taking Morientes

Spain coach José Antonio Camacho has admitted he made a mistake in not taking Real Madrid CF striker Fernando Morientes to EURO 2000™. Camacho told the Spanish sports daily Marca that he was wrong to leave Morientes, a scorer for Madrid in the UEFA Champions League final, out of his 22-man squad in favour of Ismael Urzaiz.

"I made a mistake"
Camacho said: "I made a mistake. I accept that. But we scored seven goals, which is not bad. And Urzaiz had always done well for us before." Camacho insisted he would not criticise any of his players but his comments suggested he was hoping for more from Urzaiz – the Athletic Club Bilbao striker who started Spain's first match against Norway but thereafter only appeared as a substitute. Urzaiz scored six goals in the qualifying round but was the only Spanish striker who failed to find the net in the finals. The three other forwards - Raúl González, Alfonso Pérez and Pedro Munitis – all got among the goals.

No luck
Camacho said Urzaiz's Athletic team-mate Julen Guerrero was another player who was unlucky to miss out: "I couldn't take 80 players. Guerrero was another one you could mention, for his free-kicks, but there were only so many places."
But the Spain coach denied making any other mistakes. "If we had not dominated our matches, if we had offered nothing, you could say I got it wrong," he said. "But it was not like that. We went out to win all four matches, we dominated them all. We were unlucky in both games we lost. That was that. We did what we could."

Goalkeeper switch
The Spanish coach defended his decision to drop José Antonio Molina after Spain's opening defeat to Norway. "So wasn't I hard on Cañizares then when I left him out of the first match?" he said when it was suggested he had treated Molina harshly.
He also his explained his decision not to play Real Madrid's teenage goalkeeper Iker Casillas, saying José Cañizares and Molina had seemed safer options.

Standing his corner
Camacho also refused to acknowledge he had erred in playing Agustín Aranzabal and Juan Carlos Valerón, neither of whom impressed. Valerón was dropped in favour of Iván Helguera after Spain's second match, while Camacho raised eyebrows by recalling Aranzabal in place of Sergi Barjuán– who had been lively in his only start against Yugoslavia- for the quarter-final against France. "We knew there would be changes in a tournament like this," he said. "As for Aranzabal, Sergi likes to get forward but for that match I didn’t want attacking full-backs because one pass from Zidane to Henry can destroy you."

Penalty miss
Finally to Raúl's missed penalty. Camacho confirmed he had not given any orders about who should take it. "I thought Alfonso might also take it. Or possibly Guardiola. But Raúl was the one who stepped forward. That was the decision and I accepted it. It might have been different if Mendieta had still been on the pitch. I would have stopped Raúl and told Mendieta to take it." Camacho had substituted Mendieta for Urzaiz on 57 minutes because "he was shattered – he'd played three matches flat out".


Euro200.org

I'm not down on Raul, says Camacho
Sunday 25th June 2000

Jose-Antonio Camacho refused to blame penalty villain Raul after France edged out Spain in Bruges and revealed he was proud of his players. "We were just lacking in a little something and a factor called luck," the Spain coach said.

"My first thoughts are that we're getting the plane home. The world champions have that little bit extra that the rest don't have and that was the case tonight.

"We kept up our rhythm and we were going for it but they dug in. They didn't let us do anything. We could have scored another goal in the last few minutes but it wasn't to be. You can't trust to luck.

"I'm proud of my players, they always go out to win. The French leave a lot of space on the wings and I wanted to use that and get one-on-one situations, but Mendieta didn't understand what I wanted and constantly strayed into the middle.

"I told the full-backs not to attack in the first-half too much, but we were hit by the second goal with our full-backs pushing up.

"In the second half France were getting men behind the ball which made it difficult. They have that world champions' quality, a savoir-faire when they do the right thing at a precise moment which puts them above the rest."

Camacho only made one excuse for the defeat, appearing to blame the gruelling Liga season for jading his team.

"The Spanish League has shown its true colours with players in late June having played 70 to 80 games," he said. "I had to make changes throughout the tournament or the players' legs would not have stood 90 minutes."

Midfielder Ivan Helguera added: "The players are very down. We've played a good game, we lost it in the last few minutes, it's a great pity.

"We played sensationally well in the first half, we were their equal before the break, but in the second half France went on the defensive.

"We deserved an equaliser. Raul, who is a specialist and can score when the pressure is on, missed today. It seems that Spain are jinxed, always losing in the last few minutes."

President of the Spanish Football Federation, Angel Villar, said: "Raul showed great bravery to take the penalty and unfortunately it wasn't to be. But he fought hard for his team throughout the game and can't be blamed."

France coach Roger Lemerre added: "We knew the Spaniards had qualities and we knew we had qualities as well. It’s been a great fight. The suspense was very intense and it must have been hard for our supporters.

"The result is right considering two Spaniards could have been sent off during the game [Salgado and Paco] and things might have turned out differently if they had been reduced to nine players – we would have dominated more.

"As a coach, though, I can't blame the referee. On the last-minute penalty, it seemed Barthez’s hand tackled the Spaniard’s leg, so the decision was right.

Lemerre then looked ahead to Wednesday and France's semi-final clash with Portugal in Brussels.

He said: "As you go through the competition, all the games become harder. Portugal showed they were talented and we will have to study their game specifically. But we’re only one game from the final. Let’s hope we’ll have recovered from this game in time to win."

Goalscorer Zinedine Zidane added: "All the team played well against a good Spanish team who were looking for the same thing that we were.

"They started the competition badly, but have improved and, even though people expected us to be superior, they saw Spain were a good team.

"We knew it was going to be hard, but fought for 90 minutes. The last-minute penalty summed up the game, as they were never far behind. We are all tired but winning makes you forget."
(onefootball)

24th June (The Times)

SPAIN have spent much of the past fortnight looking like sceptical househunters being shown around Euro 2000. Now, with the uncanny 4-3 victory over Yugoslavia, they have taken a fancy to the place and decided they want it. In Bruges, tomorrow, they may find out that France have the means to outbid them, but it has been engrossing to watch Spain's attitude change. Given the monotony of the action, it was understandable that they appeared reluctant to be on the same pitch as Norway but the inability of Jose Camacho's side to express their talent in the 1-0 defeat, made it seem that this would be one more international tournament that turned into a fiasco for them. By the coach's reckoning, the team was worse still in the 2-1 win over Slovenia.

Camacho talked afterwards about the inordinate length of the fixture list and made it sound as if it had been a programme of systematic abuse for players like Raúl, the Real Madrid forward. With three Spanish clubs in the semi-finals of the European Cup, no other squad contains so many players on the edge of exhaustion. With his sympathy, Camacho was coming close to issuing them with excuses for any failure.

The sensitivity was not typical of this tough individual, but the coach must have decided that he had better coax since he could not command. Spain have responded to kindness, showing some of the quality against Yugoslavia that had put them among the favourites for Euro 2000.

If they flounder in the competition, it will be because of weaknesses that cannot be rectified by an improved attitude. Spain have conceded goals in each of their three games and the vulnerability may remain, particularly if Fernando Hierro, the captain, continues to be ruled out by his thigh strain

While Camacho's side pairs Raúl with Alfonso, who struck twice against Yugoslavia, in attack, the freewheeling France team are capable of outscoring them. This has been a tournament to traumatise centre halves everywhere, but especially those who come up against Roger Lemerre's men.

If Emmanuel Petit is unfit, the introduction of Robert Pires will only swell the attacking elements.

BRUGES, Belgium, June 21 (Reuters) - Alfonso, scorer of the goal which gave Spain an incredible 4-3 win over Yugoslavia at Euro 2000 on Wednesday, described the game as "phenomenal."

The Spanish hero said: "We worked hard, there were many goals, many emotions, but it's been worth it.

"We had many problems but from now on, I hope that everything will go much better. "Spain is a team with a lot of prestige... and anyone we face from now on will be very difficult. But all the struggle, all the effort, was worth it. "I hope everyone in Spain is satisfied. In the next match we have to have our feet on the ground, although at the moment everyone is euphoric."

Coach Jose Antonio Camacho said: "With two minutes left, the players on bench said that we still had time - and in the end they were right."

"We had many chances to score and we played fluid football but sometimes football is unfair and if we had not won I think it would have been unfair."

He added: The important thing (about this side) is their dedication and involvement -- even those who did not play. It's been spectacular."

Asked who he would rather face in Sunday's quarter-final, he said: "I'd prefer France even though they are the world champions because playing Holland would mean facing the hosts."

SPAIN : Here we go again! If mass suicide were to become a feature of Spanish society, would anyone truly be surprised? I must say I agree with the view that the initial eleven left out some lethal finishers and midfield creators. And how on earth could Morientes be left at home in Madrid? Mendieta and Alfonso looked so promising when they arrived, far too late, and Camacho must be anticipating the knives being sharpened if Spain fails again. A totally uninspired performance where even Pep Guardiola was reduced to being ordinary-looking. With Yugoslavia and Slovenia yet to come, the oddsmakers must be having nightmares on sussing out the Spaniards. (Seamus Malin, www.fuxito.com)

The Sunday Times preview to Spain v Slovenia