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The coach of the Spanish national team, Luis Aragones, after the lost qualifying match for the 2008 European Championship against Sweden, stated that he is determined to withstand criticism and continue working with the team and received support from the federation, but mistakes and fans began demanding the strategist to step down louder. The Spaniards, who had already sensationally lost in Northern Ireland last month, suffered another failure on Saturday and had to admit the superiority of the group leader Sweden on the road. After this defeat, L. Aragones' students in Group F, having only collected 3 points in 3 matches, are in fifth place and one point behind Denmark and Northern Ireland, and even six points behind the Swedes. It was the first time in the last 15 years that Spain lost two qualifying matches in a row, and the last time this happened the team did not qualify for the final tournament of the 1992 continental championship. L. Aragones, whose 25-match unbeaten streak was broken by the World Cup quarter-final match against France, was ready to resign in September, but changed his mind and this time he insisted that he was not going to give up. "I feel strong enough to continue working. I will not take any resignation actions - whether I will continue to work will depend on the federation and the media. When you lose two important matches in a row, things obviously get tougher, but I have been in football for a long time and I have dealt with situations like this," said the 68-year-old coach. Meanwhile, the president of the Spanish Football Federation, Angel Maria Villar, expressed his support for the coach: "The entire federation supports Luis Aragones. We have complete confidence in him. He will continue to work with the national team and will qualify for Euro 2008," A.M. Villar said to one of the Spanish television channels. As the match against Sweden approaches, the Spanish press was dominated by discussions about L. Aragones' decision not to invite Real Madrid striker Raul for the first time in ten years due to injury and the statements of the team's right-back Joaquin, who also did not make it to the team, about the national team being in "chaos." However, now the discussions have shifted towards criticizing the coach and the Spanish federation itself - the media and fans have started demanding the resignation of Aragones and Villar themselves. "Luis is ready to continue, but no one believes him," proclaimed the sports newspaper AS on the front page. "Wait!" shouted "El Mundo Deportivo," while "Marca" stated that "It is no longer possible to endure all of this." In the next two matches in the qualifiers, the Spaniards will play next year - in March 2007, the team will face matches at home against the national teams of Denmark and Iceland.
