Sergio Ramos spoke after Spain's loss to Croatia in Euro 2016
Sergio Ramos spoke to the press after Spain's loss to Croatia and his penalty miss, lamenting the loss "If you wanna be champions, you have to beat the best".
Ramos speaks
Sergio Ramos still had a positive message after Spain fell to Croatia leaving them second in the group and facing a fraught path to the final. La Roja's third Group game may have ended in defeat but the Real Madrid club captain stayed optimistic despite now facing draws against the most powerful teams in the tournament, the first against Italy next Monday in the knock-out round of 16.
"Now we have to dance with the so-called favourites. We have to do it our way and just focus on the next match", he said.
How the game developed
"It was a strange match. We dominated at the beginning, created chances, went ahead and then we let them back into it, I had the chance to put the team back in front but it wasn't to be, that's a shame. That's just football. Then one of the few counter-attacks they had ended up in a goal. We know we'll face a tougher opponent than if we had finished first, of course".
The heat
"Overall the team played well, it just didn't show on the scoreboard. The heat or tiredness is no excuse. It was a weird game because we could easily have got the result we wanted and finished first. Now we have to turn the page, learn from tis and not commit the same mistakes next round and most importantly keep a clean sheet".
The tougher draw
""Now we have to dance with the so-called favourites. We have to do it our way and just keep focusing on the next match. If you want to be champion you have to beat the best. In this Euros any team can beat you, even if they're not favourites. Now we just have to think about the next team and win the next game, that's all that matters".