Spain coach Vicente del Bosque concedes that his side’s loss to Croatia means they now face a tougher task reaching the Euro 2016 final.  

With the Spanish missing a penalty before shipping a late goal to slump to a 2-1 defeat, La Roja look poised to face Italy in a repeat of the 2012 final, a fate they would have avoided with as little as a draw.

‘We’re annoyed but we’re not eliminated,’ Del Bosque told Telecinco.

‘It’s not the best road, that’s how it seems, but often you don’t know where the danger is.’

The Spanish dominated possession in the game, but failed to take their chances and might have done better to prevent the game’s late winner.

‘I have to defend our game,’ del Bosque continued.

‘We controlled the match and they scored the second goal on the counter-attack. They also scored in the last minute of the first half.

‘Everything has happened so that we had a bad result. They were even accepting the draw. We controlled the result, the draw was good for us, we seemed to be in control of the game.’

The coach insisted his side will not dwell on the defeat, despite its repercussions.

‘We have to look forward, although it seems like the path we’re on isn’t ideal. We would have liked to be first, mainly because it would have meant winning today,’ he concluded.