Luis de la Fuente on Cape Verde national football team after their shock draw vs Spain national football team:
๐ฃ๏ธ โI have to be completely honest, Iโve rarely seen a match like this in my career. It wasnโt football at times it was pure chaos.
Cape Verde didnโt try to play. They tried to destroy rhythm. Time wasting, constant interruptions, bodies everywhere, no space, no flow. It was extremely difficult to watch from the bench.
And yes, I know their coach. Heโs a close friend of Mikel Arteta. And if Iโm being honestโฆ I can see some of that influence in how they break the game up and turn it into something completely unnatural.
But let me be clear this is not an excuse. Spain still had enough chances to win this game three or four times over. At this level, you cannot miss that many opportunities.
What frustrates me most is that we allowed ourselves to get dragged into that kind of match. Instead of controlling it, we got impatient, emotional, and rushed.
Cape Verde will call it tactical discipline. I call it surviving football.
And if weโre honest, they got exactly what they wanted: a game that had nothing to do with quality, and everything to do with disruption.
But Iโll say this too if you donโt kill games early, this is what happens at a World Cup. Teams like this grow in belief minute by minute.
So yes, credit to them for the result. But Spain should never be in a position where a match like this becomes a problem in the first place.โ