Back from the brink

All seemed lost for the Spanish before the celebrations

Spain left it very late against Yugoslavia and Pep Guardiola admitted his thoughts were drifting away to another Spanish disappointment before the two stoppage-time goals.

Spain looked beaten and out of the competition as they trailed 10-man Yugoslavia with only minutes to go, but a Gaizka Mendieta penalty and a last-gasp volley from Alfonso pushed them into the quarter-finals.

Midfielder Guardiola said: "I was thinking about going back to Spain and I was very sad - but I also knew I wanted us to stay."

The Barcelona star collected Uefa's man-of-the-match award for an all-action display at the heart of the Spanish team.

He added: "We came to the tournament as one of the favourites, but since our defeat against Norway no-one has spoken about that.

"Now we've reached the quarter-finals and that is a position where Spain belong.

I was thinking about going back to Spain and I was very sad

Pep Guardiola

"We had a lot of luck, but two or three times in this tournament the referee could have given us penalties but didn't. Today he did."

Jose Antonio Camacho could not believe he had managed to put one over on his former Real Madrid boss Vujadin Boskov and lead Spain into the last eight.

Camacho said: "I've lived through some historic moments today, and they are still swimming around in my head.

"It was a very important victory for us because we won in the last moments.

"We should have scored more in the first half," he added.