Del Bosque accepts Spain criticism after defeat

The reigning European champions were humbled 2-1 in Zilina on Thursday, but can bounce back in Group C when they travel to face Luxembourg on Sunday.

Del Bosque said his under-performing side deserved to be criticised, as they failed to put in enough crosses to trouble their opponents.

"I fully understand this criticism," Del Bosque said. 

"However I'd like to ask for some respect from the point of view of that this is sport. I haven't ever called anybody to retract anything and I never will. 

"We have to accept some criticism based on certain results and as we haven't won the last fixtures."

Del Bosque said Koke, Cesc Fabregas, David Silva and Andres Iniesta were being held to account for a lack of balls into the box.

"In the last match we had 19 corners against three and those responsible for this [Koke, Fabregas, Silva, Iniesta] saw the possibility of take advantage by sending the ball high looking for headers," he said.

"As you know we always try to look for a second chance in a second cross and in this sense in the last match maybe we tried this on less occasions."

Chelsea playmaker Fabregas said the players had to ignore their critics, and continue to play their brand of football - despite their style being tougher to put in place with the younger squad members.

"In tough moments like this we know that we have to get away from certain opinions, all the criticism from the media," Fabregas said.

"We're not interested in this at all. 

"We have to be a group more than ever and what the journalists are doing causes the opposite thing to what we need right now. 

"What we're trying is a way of playing that's difficult to execute, there are very important players in the previous years that unfortunately have just left the team, and from there we have to look for the base of our football and this requires a time. 

"I hope this happens sooner rather than later, but after the World Cup we've played only three games, three, and sometimes it seems that we've played 20."