BERN, Switzerland :Spain will have to defend better against teams that hit them on the counter-attack as they go into the knockout stages of the Women’s Euros, midfielder Patri said on Friday after their 3-1 win over Italy.
Patri scored a second-half goal as her side, the reigning world and Nations League champions who are attempting to add a European crown, secured top place in Group B with a perfect nine points from three games to set up a quarter-final against hosts Switzerland in Bern in a week’s time.
The 27-year-old Patri said that it was only natural that, with Spain dominating possession, teams would try to hit them on the break.
“We see with the goals that transitions are important – sometimes it’s dead balls and we’re not strong enough, these actions we have to study and improve. With transitions we like to keep the ball, we try to overwhelm the opponent and it’s normal that they try to get us during transitions,” she told reporters.
“We have to talk and to be aware of where the ball is.”
After a shaky start, Spain took command and barely let the Italians, who also progressed from the group, touch the ball, but that did not mean that it was an easy game for the Spaniards.
“It was hard, we knew Italy would be very intense, very strong, but we adjusted our pressure, trying to do better in some actions from the middle and on the wings, we wanted to be there more,” Patri explained.
Coach Montserrat Tome has the best part of a week to work on transition defence with her players.
“We’ll continue improving. We are at the highest level, we play against very high quality teams like Italy,” she told reporters. “We have to adjust what we need to adjust, and I’m confident we can continue as we have done.”
