Spain boss Luis de la Fuente said his team were lacking sharpness in attack after being held to a shock 0-0 draw with Cape Verde in their World Cup 2026 opener.
La Roja failed to impress in a really disappointing showing. Lamine Yamal was introduced in the second half but couldn’t conjure up a goal and De la Fuente gave his verdict on his team’s display afterwards.
“We lacked freshness and finesse,” he said afterwards. “We need to keep working on our approach, improving our finishing, being more clinical.
These are the kinds of matches where you create a lot of chances, but we lacked the necessary sharpness.
“They are a very organized team. From the first moment, we saw that they sat deep, with all 10 players practically in front of the penalty area. It’s very difficult to create space like that. At times, we lacked a bit of ball movement to unbalance the opposition. When the ball doesn’t want to go in, it doesn’t want to go in.
“There were shots and chances, a desire to settle the game quickly. We have to keep going like this; we knew this was going to be very difficult, and these are games that are very hard to win.”
Spain take on Saudi Arabia next in the group phase before a final match against Uruguay.
