Vicente Del Bosque hails Spain for toppling France in World cup qualifier
World Cup champions overcome nagging doubts to topple France in qualifier
Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque praised his team for their maturity after the world champions overcame nagging doubts in the wake of recent results to beat France 1-0 at the Stade de France.
Pedro Rodriguez scored the only goal of the World Cup qualifier just before the hour mark as Spain leapfrogged Les Bleus back to the top of group I.
With three rounds of games remaining, Spain are now a point ahead of France again, just four days after conceding top spot when their 1-1 home draw with Finland was combined with France beating Georgia.
Veteran coach Del Bosque was delighted with the performance, and also warned France that they may just have lost the chance to progress automatically to the finals.
"The important thing for us was to win the three points, but the display of maturity by the players was also outstanding," he said. "The last few days have been quite difficult for us and the prospect of falling five points behind France was very bad for the Spanish national team, so the players showed great maturity in every respect.
"We could have won by a greater margin, but instead we had to suffer and keep working until the very end," he added when asked if Spain should have won more comfortably after enjoying more than 75 per cent of the possession.