Aragonés feels Spain's wrath

Last month's 3-2 UEFA EURO 2008™ qualifying defeat by Northern Ireland in Belfast was greeted as a minor disaster for Spanish football. Last night's 2-0 loss in Sweden is being seen as a full-scale catastrophe, with coach Luis Aragonés bearing the brunt of the blame in Spain.

Pre-match focus
If the pre-match focus had been on the 68-year-old coach's decision to omit Raúl González from his squad for the game in Solna, such matters had been forgotten by the time a toothless display and a 2-0 scoreline lit a bonfire under Aragonés's side. The coach had tendered his resignation after the Belfast debacle but refused to do so again, saying: "Why should I have to step down? When you lose two important games things are obviously difficult, but I've spent a long time in football and dealt with situations like this before."

Sarcastic assault
The Spanish press certainly have the knives out for the coach. Diario Marca's sarcastic front page marks some kind of point of no return for Aragonés, leading with the words: "Don't feel upset about the Selección's defeat. You might be furious but Luis is in the best of spirits." After being left out of the squad, Valencia CF winger Joaquín Sánchez hit out at Aragonés in a well-publicised interview, saying: "The situation with the national team is a shambles. I can only imagine the coach does not know which way to go."

Overdue exit
He subsequently tempered those comments, but they sound mild in comparison with El Mundo Deportivo's assessment of the Sweden result. "Luis has no credit left," it wrote, adding: "Sweden has to be the epilogue to a great job tarnished by Aragonés's insistence on carrying on when he should have left long ago." Angry supporters gathered outside the Råsunda stadium to demand the coach's resignation but Spanish Football Federation president Ángel María Villar, who had rejected the veteran's resignation last month, has restated his commitment to Aragonés.

EURO ambition
"We stand behind the national coach and he has all our trust," he said. "His spell in charge has been splendid. Two years ago, when Luis was appointed, everyone agreed with the decision because he had such a good record. Now he's even more experienced and he will carry on and take Spain to UEFA EURO 2008™."

Torres' assessment
Few in Spain would agree with such sentiments on Sunday morning, although striker Fernando Torres offered a moderately optimistic opinion of Spain's situation, saying: "It's been a big setback for us and we can't afford any more mistakes, but the good news is that there is still a long way to go." Aragonés's men regroup on Wednesday for a friendly against Argentina in Murcia, but it may take more than a victory to salvage their reputation.