Vilda: England Are Group Favourites at the Euros (Jorge Vilda interview)

Jorge Vilda, eighteen months into the Spain job after Ignacio Quereda’s twenty-seven-year reign, calls Group D the most equal and balanced of the four but names England as theoretical favourites on recent results and the standard of their players, a judgment formed in the two-one friendly defeat in October. England were very well organised with great individual skill, he says, and the tempo at which they played, physically and in moving the ball, was very high. Scotland he found organised, aggressive and strong defensively, holding Spain until a 93rd-minute corner. Portugal are evolving daily and went toe to toe in the second half in Portugal. Spain, he notes, qualified by winning their group for the first time.