Slick Spain leave Meléndez purring

Even the vastly experienced Ginés Meléndez admitted his Spain team had taken his breath away after the four-time UEFA European Under-19 Championship winners had reached yet another semi-final, thanks in no small part to three goals in the first 22 minutes against Serbia. Belgium coach Marc Van Geersom was also in celebratory mood as his team dramatically stayed in contention in Group B, while for Serbia's Dejan Govedarica and Kemal Özdeş of Turkey, there were thoughts of what might have been.

SERBIA 0-4 SPAIN
Ginés Meléndez, Spain coach
It wasn't easy at all. The first half-hour was spectacular for us. In that time we played like a team of champions. I've been here so long but I'm not sure I've ever seen one of my teams have a 30-minute spell like that. After that it was always going to be difficult keeping the same intense rhythm but we still had maybe five more good opportunities against their goalkeeper. Perhaps tiredness had something to do with those misses, although I'd like to congratulate Serbia and their coach because they never gave up.

Dejan Govedarica, Serbia coach
I mentioned before the game Spain are the No1 favourites for this tournament. We tried to play but didn't succeed in matching them this time. We expected better performances from some players; we told them to stay very close to the Spanish guys but they couldn't do that and that led to the end result. In terms of tactics we didn't set out defensively, we wanted to take the game to them in midfield but we didn't manage to do that as they were faster and better with the ball. After the team goes 3-0 down it is difficult to motivate the players who were just waiting for the end of the game.

TURKEY 1-1 BELGIUM
Marc Van Geersom, Belgium coach
We played to win but deservedly went down to ten players just before half-time; a red card is always a severe sanction but we tried to break out and use our fast strikers. We had a few chances during the game and we earned that draw. We defended very well again, we didn't take risks at the end as we did against Spain. This is a team of friends and they always fight with great spirit. I’m proud to work with them.

Kemal Özdeş, Turkey coach
Although my team wanted to win the game, I don't think we played well. We conceded a goal in the last minute from a free-kick in a game where the opposition team hardly had a chance to score. I am not satisfied with our performance. We usually played better football in the harder games though we were dominant in some parts of the game today. Belgium defended very well with ten men and were very brave in the last ten minutes; obviously we're disappointed with the goal, my players are really upset about it.