Bengtson dedicates win to Honduras fans

30 July 2012 06:22

Honduras striker Jerry Bengtson has thanked his nation's fans for helping his team to victory against Spain in the Olympic Games on Sunday.

Luis Fernando Suarez's men sent the reigning world and European champions packing with a surprise 1-0 win courtesy of a goal from the New England Revolution striker.

And Bengtson believes that victory would not have been possible without the backing of the spectators, saying the performance on the field simply matched the volume in the stands.

"It was very nice to hear the fans cheering us on and yelling 'Honduras, Honduras'. We want to thank them and dedicate this victory to them," he told reporters after the game.

"It was a tense second half. They had a lot of chances and we were able to maintain our cool when we felt threatened. It was a tough game.

"We face Japan next Wednesday and we need more points. It's going to be a complicated match, again."

Spain Under-23 boss Luis Milla, meanwhile,felt that his side had not deserved to lose to Honduras on Sunday evening, claiming that they had been denied a clear penalty.

After suffering a shock defeat by Japan in their 2012 Olympics Group D opener, La Roja needed to get something out of the game in Newcastle, but they succumbed to the early goal from Bengtson.

Spain created numerous chances, hitting the woodwork three times in total as well as having a strong spot-kick shout denied despite Adrian being bundled over in the area by Arnold Peralta.

"The referee did not want to talk about it," Milla told reporters after the game.

"But I had the feeling that there was a penalty."

Milla therefore felt that Spain's obvious sense of frustration, which manifested itself in seven bookings and an outbreak of in-fighting, was somewhat understandable.

"It was an intense match and there were disputes between the players and that can happen," he reasoned.

"When you are playing at such intensity yellow cards can happen.

"As you can imagine everybody is down and disappointed. We played well and we put on a good show. The only thing missing was the goal and we deserved to win, but now we have to analyse what happened.

"But we will keep believing in the way we play. We will keep pushing our football philosophy because all that was lacking was the goal. We played some great stuff."

Spain, who had been one of the pre-tournament favourites, sit bottom of their group with zero points, meaning they will have nothing but pride to play for in their final group game against third-placed Morocco.