MADRID, 7 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Spanish women’s football coach Montse Tomé described Tere Abelleira, Aitana Bonmatí and Jennifer Hermoso on Tuesday as “three guaranteed players”, thus defending her starting position against Brazil in the semi-finals of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where ‘La Roja’ lost 4-2 and said goodbye to the fight for gold.
“When we choose the game plan, we always choose to compete to win. In the end, Tere, Jenni and Aitana came on in the midfield today, they are three reliable players; and in other games, Patri came on and Alexia came on,” Tomé analysed in front of the microphones of the COPE radio station, at the end of the match in Marseille.
“I think we have options, that we have opted for this today and that the players who came on later have tried to change the dynamic, as we have also done in the match against Colombia. What I feel is that we have variability, that it is a competition in which there were many matches and that we have chosen what we believed would bring us closer to winning,” the coach reiterated.
For this reason, he played down the importance of Alexia Putellas being substituted in a match that started badly when we conceded the 1-0 due to a serious defensive error. “We conceded the first goal very early on and this conditioned us. Even so, I think the team tried to play the game we expect from Spain and also at a key moment, before the first half, we conceded the second goal,” he argued in this regard.
“We know that Brazil is a great team that moves quickly, that perhaps at some point we let them hit us from behind and this also made them score with long balls up front. Today it is clear that it was not the best match and that this was not enough for us to win,” lamented the Asturian coach.
Having conceded the 1-0 in “a fortuitous action”, the ‘Roja’ were left behind. “The team tried to keep the ball, they were pressing very hard, they were a team that has legs, they are physically fit and we tried. It is true that the next goal was just before the break and then we had a greater push,” he said.
“It’s clear that there are things we haven’t done well, that we have to analyse and that, if we had done them well, we probably wouldn’t be talking about this result. We have to look at it, analyse it calmly and try to gather energy for what’s left, as we have a bronze medal at stake,” warned the coach about the next match.
“We were thinking about Brazil from two contexts, what they had already done to us more defensively and what they did today, which was what they had been doing. We knew that with a pressure with two up front we would be able to have solutions on the outside. I think that in that circulation we found people inside, despite each one having to mark them individually. They were intense and we were not able to materialize the attacks we had,” said Tomé from the mixed zone of the Stade Vélodrome.
“I think that both Alexia and Jenni, when they have had minutes, have done well. Of course they can play together, they played today, but everything we have chosen has been to win. It is clear that when things do not go as expected, it is questioned more. But what I am saying, everything we have chosen we have chosen to ensure that Spain was competitive and in the changes, in the eleven and in everything,” he insisted.
Finally, she spoke about how hard it is to win medals at the Olympics. “It’s a demanding competition, we’ve played every other day and it shows. But I know the team, the team is going to be tough today, just like we all are going to be, and we need to change our mindset and start putting our minds on competing against Germany,” concluded the Spanish coach.