FRANCE 98 – Spain – F. Hierro: “We are fired-up by a need for revenge after our defeat at the hands of Nigeria”

Comments from VINEUIL SAINT-FIRMIN, where the SPAIN (Group D) team are in residence:

LUIS ENRIQUE (21):

“For me, finishing first or second in the group amounts to the same thing. We must get through to the round of sixteen. If FRANCE finish top of Group C, while we finish second, then we will face Aimé JACQUET’s team in the round of sixteen. I think that this would be an excellent match, but I am not sure that the French players would feel the same way about meeting us so soon. I saw FRANCE on television and they made a strong impression on me. They are without a doubt the best team I have seen so far, because BRAZIL (Group A), while having better individual players, lacks cohesion. It is difficult to win a World Cup with a team like this. Our morale is high and we are ready for our next match against PARAGUAY (19 June in ST-ETIENNE). We are all behind our captain ZUBIZARETTA (1) and we all know what we have to do in the forthcoming matches”.

Fernando HIERRO (6):

“We are fired-up by a need for revenge after our defeat at the hands of NIGERIA (2-3). We are anxious to show what we are made of, and that the defeat the other day was just a stumble on the way forward. The media have generally left us alone, but everything they wrote about ZUBIZARETTA was unfair. The journalists seem to have forgotten the record of our longstanding goalkeeper, and one minute of play seems to have erased everything he has done for the SPAIN team. We are always a good team, strongly united, and we can go a long way in this World Cup. I remember in ITALIA’ 90, and USA’ 94, we started badly and then improved our performance. In the current World Cup I think the teams are all pretty equal. FRANCE have lined-up the best team though. With regards to BRAZIL, it has players who can swing matches at any minute, but they don’t have a unified team. It is a shame that we lost to the African team, because in reality we played really well and only lost the match through bad luck.”

Juan Antonio PIZZI (9):

“Unfortunately, we lost our first match and now have to win the next two if we are not to be dependent on the other matches. It is up to us now to qualify for the round of sixteen by beating PARAGUAY and BULGARIA. PARAGUAY, our next opponents, often take matches through free kicks or penalties, whereas we create our own chances. We also have to beat BULGARIA. We are well-equipped enough to win both matches, because we score lots of goals. I really liked the Brazilian goal by BEBETO versus MOROCCO (Group A) and the two goals we scored against NIGERIA”.