Del Bosque scolds limp Spanish display

Spain boss Vicente del Bosque made no excuses for his side’s 4-0 loss to Portugal, admitting they were outplayed by their Iberian neighbours.

A brace from Helder Postiga along with goals from Carlos Martins and Hugo Almeida saw Portugal humble the world champions with a brilliant attacking display in Lisbon on Wednesday.

Spain have been the best team in the world over the last three years, winning the 2010 World Cup and the 2008 European Championship, but del Bosque admitted they were outclassed by Portugal.

“We have to accept the defeat. We couldn’t have played any worse. They were very effective on the counterattack and did us a lot of damage,” del Bosque said.

“We had a very weak second half and I have to recognise that Portugal have been better than us.”

“We have no excuses. I’m very upset because it was an important game and it hasn’t been our day.”

“We had good intentions but the reality is today we haven’t been good either on the pitch or on the bench.”

Spanish midfielder Cesc Fabregas apologised for the performance and said his side could not afford to dwell on the painful loss.

“We’re hurt. It’s been a big scoreline but we have to lift ourselves. We wanted to finish the year well but now we have to wait until February,” Fabregas told TVE.

“You can’t take anything positive from a game like this. They played a lot better than us and that’s it. We just have to apologize and move forward.”

The performance was a huge reversal in fortunes for Portugal after sacking their coach two months ago following a disappointing start to their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign.

“We wanted to win, but could never have predicted a result like this against a team with Spain’s dimension,” said new manager Paulo Bento.

“The way we played had a lot of positives. The win does not bring points, but it does earn us prestige.”

Bento took over from former boss Carlos Quieroz in September and has guided Portugal to three successive wins.