Spain’s Romeu is staying positive

Spain’s Chelsea midfielder Oriol Romeu remains confident that his side can still progress to the later stages of the Olympic football competition despite losing their opening game 1-0 to Japan.

Luis Milla’s side, which includes some top senior stars, struggled with the Japan’s aggressive tactics throughout and never recovered from going down to 10 men when Inigo Martinez was sent-off four minutes before half-time. But Romeu said: “The first game wasn’t as good as we had hoped but this is football.

“Many national teams have won World Cups and European Championships having not won the first game, it is not how you start but how you finish.”