'Greedy' Hamill says Scots wanted more
Friday, November 29, 2013
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Scotland coach Pauline Hamill was proud with her team's efforts in holding Spain 0-0 in Group B but admitted: "When you have a chance to win it, you have to take it."
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Pauline Hamill, Scotland coach
I think with the chances we had in the game, you feel a little bit disappointed not to win it but equally our goalkeeper's had a few good saves too. But we're greedy as coaches – when you have a chance to win it, you feel that you have to take it. But the girls did absolutely superbly – they were excellent, leading on from the second half against Germany into this game so you can't ask any more.
You take a point and it takes you into the last game and that's what we have to be positive about. We take it to the last group game and that's the least that we wanted to achieve being down here is to still have an opportunity going into the last game to qualify and we've set ourselves up for that.
We knew against Spain that firstly we had to be organised and tight and compact. We felt that maybe in the second half we were able to take some more risks and that worked out really quite well for us. We made a couple of changes and it looked like we were creating quite a few chances. That's maybe the only disappointing thing – we've created three or four chances against a really good team and not taken one of them. It's just having a calm head and composure at the last to finish but that's what we work on, and we'll go away and work on that.
You do so well in the game and the last thing you want to do is lose it with the last kick of the ball and that's why we can't be too disappointed because although we created a lot, Spain had chances. Maybe a draw is a fair result.
Jorge Vilda, Spain coach
We are satisfied. The important thing for us was not to lose. Scotland gave us a very physical game and defensively we responded well. In attack we weren't able to show all of our attacking potential but I think we had chances to score and today unfortunately they didn't go in. Our goalkeeper as well as Scotland's made some great saves and that's why in the end it was 0-0. If it hadn't been for [Flaherty], we'd have probably got a goal and they also had some clear opportunities.
[On Nahikari García's last-gasp chance, saved by Rebecca Flaherty] I was already picturing the ball in the back of the net – we were all willing it to go in from the bench. Their goalkeeper made the save and it wasn't to be. But it is a good point. Before entering this group phase, we would have liked to have been in this position. The ideal situation would be to be already qualified for the semi-finals after two matches. It hasn't worked out that way but it's still in our hands right now.