Luis Enrique slammed his Spain side after they suffered a 3-2 defeat to England, claiming it would have been normal to “kill” his players after their first-half display rather than stick with his trusted starting XI.
Raheem Sterling scored twice as England delivered one of their finest victories of the modern era.
Marcus Rashford was the other scorer in a stunning opening 45 minutes, which witnessed Spain conceding three on home soil for the first time in their history.
Paco Alcacer headed in before the hour to spark hopes of a comeback but England were home and dry by the time Sergio Ramos scored in the 98th minute, and former Barcelona boss Luis Enrique did not hold back with his criticism.
“The first half, atrocious, it has to be recognised. We arrived late pressing, the first goal killed us,” said Enrique.
“We made so many individual errors. It’s bad to say it, but it was a miracle in the break.
“The normal thing would have been to kill the players, but I reinforced them, and didn’t change any of them.
“With 2-0, sitting back and coming out on the break, England are dangerous. A group with two World Cup semi-finalists is not easy.
“Now we continue to depend on ourselves, we have to go to Croatia and win (to win the group).
“I said great teams have suffered. We forced the opposition back, and it’s a shame we didn’t score earlier because we would have done the 3-3 and the comeback in the Villamarin.”
