The Real Madrid midfielder was understandably in high spirits as he made his 100th appearance in a La Furia Roja jersey that also saw http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Vicente-c36001 Del Bosque’s charges make it to the Euro 2012 semi-finals.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/France-c2899. Les Bleus were swept away by the midfield magic of Vicente Del Bosque’s charges, who dominated the play throughout the encounter.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Xabi-Alonso-c37045 was the hero for La Furia Roja, scoring both the goals to lead from the front in his 100th appearance for the Spanish national team.
The former http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Croatia-c2879.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Alonso-c5254 hailed the team effort, stating that they were the better team on the night and deserved to win the fixture after controlling the affairs from the starting whistle.
When questioned about the significance of the match that puts him in the elite category of La Roja players with a century of international appearances under their belt, Alonso was quick to brush the matter under the carpet.
He stated that the priority was to make it to the semi-finals of Euro 2012 and individual success comes after it.
Spain take on the challenge of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Portugal-c2984 in the semi-finals with Alonso asking his teammates to prepare for the tough task ahead of them. He remarked that matches will only get tougher and La Roja members will have to give their all to defend their title.
"These are the matches where we have to show what we're about," the Basque midfielder told Uefa.com. "We controlled it from start to finish. The team made things easy.”
"We're through to the semi-finals, which was the main thing. We're pleased about that. The 100 caps is just an extra.”
"I was happy about my 100th game and the goals. We know every game is difficult now but we're in the semi-finals and we're going to give it everything.”
"It became easier after the goal," he added. "It was a big quarter-final game and you have to know how to play them.”
"We controlled the match, though we knew it wouldn't be easy against opponents that were defending deep."
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