SPAIN-UKRAINE: Players' Quotes

14 June 2006

XAVI (ESP) Budweiser Man of the Match
The game went our way almost immediately, and when you score two early goals like that you're well on the way to winning. The team was fantastic in all areas. We were very compact.

David VILLA (ESP)
We thought it would be much tougher. You never know how good you are before a World Cup and that probably explains why we're a little surprised. This win is only the first step, though. We've got to keep on working hard and just see how we get on from here. Fernando TORRES (ESP)
We played really well, but we’ve got to remember we haven't won anything yet. At least people can see now that we are capable of scoring goals.

Luis Garcia (ESP)
Getting such an early goal helped us settle down. They opened up a little more and when we scored the second their heads went down and even more spaces appeared. All we thought about then was playing our game. Now we can enjoy the win and start thinking about Tunisia. There's still a long way to go in the World Cup.

Carles PUYOL (ESP)
My job's in defence, but when I can I try to get forward and help out in attack. Naturally I'm delighted I helped set up the goal. We had a lot of confidence in ourselves, but we didn't expect our first game to work out so well for us. We really enjoyed it, but things won't always be that easy.

Marcos SENNA (ESP)
Lots of people had their doubts about Spain, and that made the players a bit apprehensive in the build-up to the World Cup. Winning the way we did today, though, will settle us down. I felt very comfortable out there and I'm delighted to be playing in my first World Cup.

Andriy SHEVCHENKO (UKR)
It was a very tough game and the heat made it even harder. The first two goals really affected us mentally and we became very anxious after that. Spain are an extremely strong side, but we'll bounce back for the next game.

Serhiy REBROV (UKR)
It was so hot out there we really suffered, but it was the same for the Spanish so we can't use that as an excuse. We are all very down but we should be able to pick ourselves up and turn things around in the next match. This game's gone and there's no point crying about it now.

Oleksandr SHOVKOVSKYI (UKR)
We've only lost one game. It's not a disaster. There was nothing we could do about it so we've just got to turn our mind to the next two games.