Spain says lessons learned from Japan loss in FIFA World Cup

DOHA: Spain have learned lessons from the 2-1 loss to Japan that threatened to knock them out of the World Cup and are aware they cannot afford to make the same mistakes against Morocco, Rodri Hernandez said on Sunday.

Spain's 2-1 loss to Japan in the final group game after the Asian side scored two quick-fire goals dropped them to second in the group, and there was a three-minute period when they were third after Costa Rica took the lead against Germany.

Ultimately, Germany did Spain a favour by beating Costa Rica but Rodri admitted those three difficult minutes unnecessarily complicated their own match before they sealed progress to the last 16.

"Now a new competition is beginning. There is always analysis on what we can improve on, even after the games when we've played well," Rodri told reporters ahead of Tuesday's game against Morocco who surprisingly topped Group F.

"The other day there weren't that many things to improve on because it was a 10-minute collapse and this is what we have to do better. We've been warned that this cannot happen again.

"The coach has been clear, the players have assumed responsibility and we're training happily, wanting to be in the next round and knowing that we can get there." (Agencies)

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