Spain lost to Russia 4-3 on penalties after the 90 minutes and extra time ended 1-1.

“I cannot say who did something wrong in the game. You saw that they [Spain] gave their best. But we have both weak and strong sides. I cannot blame a single player,” Hierro said at the post-match press conference.

He added that everything was going well during the game, but Spain had bad luck in the “lottery” that is the penalty shootout.

Russia advanced to the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time in its history, since the break-up of the Soviet Union and will face Croatia or Denmark.