Isco urged Spain to stop ‘gifting goals’ and ‘play simpler’ football after their 2-2 draw with Morocco on Monday.
“We went out a little hesitant again,” the Real Madrid midfielder, who scored La Roja’s first goal en route to topping their World Cup group, said after the game.
“This can’t keep happening to us. From now, we must start games as a matter of life or death.
“We can’t keep gifting goals, we have to be focused. We’re missing what we know best, which is to control the game, have the ball and not play end-to-end.
“We have to gear ourselves up and remember that any team we face from this point onwards can send us home.
“We’re happy for having topped our group, but perhaps the sensations aren’t good. Still, the moment of truth has arrived and I hope we win our next few matches.
“Even Morocco, who had nothing to play, wouldn’t gift us anything. We have to play simpler and not make mistakes on the ball so they can’t score from set-pieces.
“We don’t have to go crazy. Even though we finished first, we have to do things better. We came out disconnected and needed them to score to wake up.
“In the second half, the same thing happened to us. We’re not controlling games with the possession we have and we’re suffering for it.
“VAR decisive? That’s what it’s here for, so that we don’t have the point we earned taken away from us. It favours everyone, it would give a lot of courage to go home for that … "
“Morocco’s aggression? This is football, they did their jobs, were very professional, and started strongly, so we can have no complaints.
“We know that from now on it’ll be very difficult against the hosts, who are having a fantastic tournament. We have to do things very well.”
