Soccer-Reaction to Spain's 1-0 win over Italy at Euro 2024

Soccer Football - Euro 2024 - Group B - Spain v Italy - Arena AufSchalke, Gelsenkirchen, Germany - June 20, 2024 Italy's Giovanni Di Lorenzo in action with Spain's Nico Williams REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler

GELSENKIRCHEN, Germany -Following is reaction after Spain beat Italy 1-0 on Thursday with an own goal from Riccardo Calafiori to qualify for the Euro 2024 last 16 as Group B winners.

Spain manager Luis de la Fuente: "I'm very proud of the result and the way in which we won this match, but it's a very challenging tournament and the further we go, our opponents will get to know us and become increasingly difficult. There's a lot of top teams in this competition."

Italy manager Luciano Spalletti: "When we had 3-4 fresher players we managed to stay more intense, retrieved more high balls and created situations that could have led us to draw the match. But they were much stronger than us and won deservedly."

"When the legs don't work, character and personality don't matter," he added.

"We never got to midfield, we were always very long and every time we won the ball back sometimes they took it away from us, other times it was an inaccurate, untargeted choice. It was a reaction without there being a reason behind it."

Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma: "We are angry. Let's use this to motivate ourselves for the next games, our destiny is in our hands."

Spain winger Nico Williams: "I'm very happy. The game went well for us. The team worked like animals. We showed (in first group game) against Croatia that we wanted to do something big. We knew it was going to be very difficult. Italy are a great team. We were able to take our chances."

Italy's Andrea Cambiaso: "We felt like they were going at a higher pace, that was decisive in this game. They were smarter and won the game. Everything can change, we have to recover energy and play a good game against Croatia (in the final group game)."

Spain forward Alvaro Morata: "It's three points and we're through to the next round. We had a lot of clear chances, but we are very happy because we showed that we are a great team and we suffocate anyone, it is very difficult to play against us."

Source: Reuters