Vilda: “Sweden is a tremendously powerful team and they are going to demand our best version”

MADRID, 14 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Spanish women’s coach, Jorge Vilda, has assured that “no” they are going to “change the script” this Tuesday in the semifinal match of the Women’s World Cup against Sweden, a “tremendously powerful physically” team and that they will demand their “best version” but the one they are going to look directly “into the eyes”.

“The strengths are obvious: their physical conditions, they are a tremendously powerful team physically, they are very dangerous from set pieces, they have shown it in the World Cup, with strength in offensive transitions… We are Spain and we are not leaving to move from our script. We have analyzed Sweden and we know what we have to do. I am clear that they are going to demand our best version of us. Small details are very important, as are mental moments. My team has been able to recover from adversities, here and in the past,” he declared at a press conference.

In addition, he considers it “an opportunity” to be able to beat a rival that Spain has never beaten. “Sweden may have more of an obligation to beat us because of history, but I am convinced that we can look them perfectly in the eye. If we give a good version of Spain, we will win the game,” he warned.

Regarding the impact that the team is having in Spain, Vilda is aware that it is even greater than in previous events. “We are getting messages from Casa Real, from institutions and personalities. My thermometer is the messages I receive after each game, I have many without answers, and from the 2019 World Cup to now they have multiplied by three or four. If we got a great success, women’s football would see an explosion. In Spain we are already experiencing it without achieving anything at an absolute level,” he said.

“As for what the national team has: these players. Without these players it would be impossible. And the absolute commitment to, in each training session, give everything, take every last word in each talk, work as a united team, and that in almost In the two months that we have been concentrating, there has not only been harmony and professionalism, but good vibes, unity, the desire to win and the desire to go to the end,” he said.

He also confessed that they work on managing nerves. “The psychologist has told us that it is good to cry. Well channeled it gives us strength to compete tomorrow,” she said, before revealing that they have tried penalties. “We think that penalties are trained. We have been training them for two months in case a penalty shootout comes, so that the players have maximum confidence,” he said.

He was also “very happy” with the level that Alexia Putellas is offering. “She comes from a recovery process of 9-10 months after tearing her anterior cruciate ligament. We have treated her with all the professionalism and her evolution is being very positive. She is preparing for everything,” she said.

Lastly, he thanked the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) for his support in the face of the ’15’ rebellion. “I want to value the support and backing of our president, Luis Rubiales, from day one; without that we surely would not be here, all this would not have happened. We have a president who reacted with courage, who bet so much on my coaching staff as for me. I want to congratulate him for the management of this whole process”, he concluded.