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Romeu leaps to Spain's defence

Denmark did not despair after failing to deny holders Spain a place in the finals, with the visitors' Oriol Romeu already eyeing success in Israel, saying: "We want to win it, obviously."

Romeu leaps to Spain's defence
Romeu leaps to Spain's defence ©UEFA.com

Oriol Romeu said his Spain side are already dreaming of a repeat of their 2011 success at next summer's UEFA European Under-21 Championship finals in Israel after completing an 8-1 aggregate play-off triumph against Denmark, for whom a 3-1 home defeat represented an improvement, if not exactly an achievement.

Oriol Romeu, Spain midfielder
It was very good for us. We played well. Even though we had won the first leg 5-0, we came here for a victory. We always play to win and that was what we did. Everything went perfectly. Maybe we were a bit quicker than Denmark. Sometimes there's a difference between players, but we are just happy that we won and that's what we wanted. Everybody wants to play at a tournament like the U21 finals. We want to win it, obviously, but it's not going to be easy. A lot of teams will try to get the title but we will do our best.

Álvaro Vázquez, Spain forward
I am delighted that we've taken the final step to get to Israel – it wasn't an easy match. They had a few chances but David [de Gea] managed to stop them, while we did well with the few chances we had, which resulted in this victory. I always try to take full advantage of any opportunities and today I scored two goals, but I'm also happy with our overall achievement. It has been really good. The only disappointing thing was the goal we conceded, but we've had a phenomenal qualifying campaign and we've done very well here too.

Mathias Jørgensen, Denmark defender
We had no chance of going through but we knew we could play better than we did at their place. The scoreline was better but not as much better as we had hoped. They punished us for our mistakes and that shows they are a class squad, though we might think that we played better football than them. I'm satisfied with our game but at times we make too many mistakes and lose the ball in dangerous positions; this allowed them to put us under pressure. Those few minutes aside, I think we played fine and that's why we are not too down. Another side might be able to interrupt their game, but Spain are definitely one of the favourites to win the tournament.

Viktor Fischer, Denmark forward
It was a great experience in many ways to make my debut for Denmark's U21s. The standard of play was top class so I'm very proud I managed to keep up with the pace, but the result is another matter. You will not play a better side than Spain. They move the ball so quickly that you have to be on your toes every second of the game. If you aren't, they are past you and scoring goals. So, mentally, you have to be alert at all times and luckily we were in the first half, apart from the goal, while they outplayed us in the second. I had hoped to get a goal and had an effort off the crossbar. I really wanted to see that go in, but maybe I tried too hard to hit it perfectly. However, I'm pretty pleased with my debut.

 

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