Celades hails Spain progression

Spanish Under 21 Coach Albert Celades expressed his delight at his side becoming the first team to reach the European Championship semi finals.

Goals from Saul Niguez, Sandro Ramirez and Inaki Williams secured a 3-1 victory for La Rojita over Portugal on Tuesday to secure the side’s progress into the last four as they were confirmed as group winners.

"I think you saw a magnificent game between two great teams,” Celades told UEFA.com after the match.

“I'm very satisfied to get to the semi-finals after the second game from the group we're in – against Macedonia, Portugal, Serbia. We couldn't imagine it would end this way.

“We're delighted to achieve our objectives, to reach the semis, with the game today. We're really delighted with the work the lads put in today because we played like a team.

“There were moments we suffered and the team were able to handle that. We stayed tight as a unit. We knew what we had to do to win.

"In the qualifiers, we struggled for efficiency. It was the opposite – we had to create a lot of chances to score goals.

“It is something we've tried to work on. I think we've improved. We scored three goals but we also could have scored another.

“Portugal of course had a lot of shots on our goal and had their chances too but it's part of our game we're happy about.

“We have players with a lot of talent up front and that makes it easier."

Tags 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship Albert Celades La Rojita Spain Under-21
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