Kochi: "Give me five minutes, let me be happy for this win," said coach Santiago Denia with a smile.
Why not? Spain registered their fourth victory on the trot to qualify as the third semi-finalist in the U-17 FIFA World Cup - India edition.
It was the perfect night for the three-time runners-up - 'a job almost perfect' in Santi's words - at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi, where they played all their matches.
The usual sea of yellow saw streaks of red, as Kochi fans recorded their best attendance at the venue in this edition of the World Cup. A record 28,486 turned up on the final day.
From the first minute to the dying moments, it was an eventful evening. Though the first half dominance of Spain, in a way, sealed the fate of the match in the first 13 minutes of play when Abel Ruiz put his team ahead with his fourth strike of the tournament. Ruiz, already the highest scorer for Spain at the under-17 level took his tally to 23 goals with that effort.
If 72 per cent ball possession by Spain in the first half is anything to go by, the European champions never allowed the Iranians to get away.
"We knew we had to play inside the defense and it would be very difficult. We know it was very important to start and end the match very well. I believe we did a job almost perfect. We did everything we need to do and it was important to qualify for the semifinals.
"I liked the performance of the players," added Santi at the end summing up their flawless show.
Result: Spain 3 - 1 Iran
The second half was peppered with three goals, two for Spain followed by a lone one by Saeid Karim for Iran in the 69th minute.
That came only a couple of minutes after Ferran Torres became the sixth scorer for Spain when he netted in the 67th minute.
After four wins in their five outings, Iranian coach Abbas Chamanian opted to focus on the positives instead of reading much into the defeat.
"I'm really happy that we got to play five games. It's been an amazing experience for the players and the coaching staff," said Chamanian.
The 2016 AFC U16 Championships runners-up, who made history by qualifying for the last-eight for first time, finished with four wins (from their 5 games), 13 goals and conceded 5 (three in their last game alone) in this edition.
"We can already start harnessing this generation with a view to the future," added the proud coach.
Considering the previous match, Iran didn't have as much ball possession as they had when they slayed heavyweights Germany in Goa.
"We identified those areas and plugged it. It was clear to us that if we were direct in attacking Iran we might have given them a chance to counter attack. One of key play was to have players on the sides and not give them any chance to counter-attack," elaborated Santi on Spain's strategy against the rank outsiders.
"We have still conceded a goal, we created a lot of chances but we have not scored off all the chances. We had chances to score the second goal in the second half."
Spain will play African team Mali in their last-four clash.
Mali, as any other team is very fast and they have very good quality in the way they play.
"From tonight onwards we will start working on the game plan.
We want to move vertical and that's the idea I want the team to have," Santi said of their game plan for Mali.
It looks like the five minutes is already over for coach Santi and Team Spain.
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