Draw gives Spain food for thought

Coach Juan Santisteban was a frustrated figure despite his Spain side finishing first in UEFA European Under-19 Championship Group A thanks to a goalless draw with Greece, who also reached the last four for the first time after holding off the challenge of a Portugal side whose 2-0 defeat of hosts Austria in Ried was not enough to keep them in the competition. Holders Spain will now meet Group B runners-up France in the semi-finals on Tuesday, while Group B winners Germany are the opposition for Greece. uefa.com rounds up the reaction.

SPAIN 0-0 GREECE
Juan Santisteban, Spain coach
We struggled to get going in the first half, although Greece did not allow us to play the way we know we can. Greece did not attack too much and we knew we would win the group with a point so it was a bit strange we were the ones who had to push forward to get the win. They were happy to drop back a lot and made it hard for us to play. They didn't show much in attack; they didn't really try to score or get men forward. This type of match can be dangerous because you're invited to attack but at the same time you don't want to concede yourself.

Nikolaos Nioplias, Greece coach
It's very important to be in the semi-finals but we won't have any chance if we start that game with the same mentality we showed here, although the second half was a big improvement. Once we learned Portugal were winning 2-0, both teams dropped off and tried to protect the result. In my experience I understand that even if you don't really want to play for a draw, your mentality is to do that because in this case we knew it was enough to qualify. We always want to win games but both sets of players knew beforehand one point would be enough so it was natural they settled for that in the end.

PORTUGAL 2-0 AUSTRIA
Edgar Borges, Portugal coach
It's hard to talk at the moment because I have mixed feelings. On the one side, I'm happy with the way we played today, but we're very disappointed we're not in the semi-finals. Overall, I was happy with the finals. We showed fair play and respect for our opponents, and I would like to congratulate my team for their great play. The Greece defeat is our only one in this competition, including qualifying, and that proves the quality of this team. We knew it would be a tough task to reach the semi-finals from our group and that was proven right from the start. All four teams could have finished first or fourth.

Hermann Stadler, Austria coach
From the very beginning, the boys were extremely scared. We were not used to playing at such a high tempo. We tried everything we could and gave it our all, but we were unable to deal with the variety in Portugal's game. We were just nervous and suffered from a mental block. We are so sorry for all these great fans because we played our worst game by far in this tournament. The team wanted to win from the first second, but we were a long way off doing that. Of course I'm disappointed. We wanted to at least leave with a victory. We knew the group would be extremely difficult, but we felt we had a great chance of qualifying - and I still believe we can look forward to a positive future.