All hope was lost two days before the tournament started.
Hierro decided that today was as good a day as any other to dismantle the midfield by sending Iniesta to the bench, stick with Silva (who has been consistently horrible through the tournament) and shoehorn on the right a left midfielder like Asensio, who is only good against teams that leave spaces, in a match against a team that will park the bus.
Unsurprisingly the team struggled to get anywhere close to the russian area during the first half.
In the second half Hierro didn't do anything until Russia made all their subs. When he finally decided to do something he got them right and the team improved a lot, but Spain run out of time before scoring.
Expectable when all your coach's experience is a 8th place in Spain second division with a team that has one of the biggest budgets of the league.
