Iniesta reveals he was supposed to take Spain penalty - not Ramos

Andres Iniesta has revealed that he was going to take Spain's penalty against Croatia, but Sergio Ramos took it off him.

The Real Madrid man missed from the spot with the score level at 1-1 as La Roja were eventually beaten 2-1, setting up a round-of-16 meeting with Italy in Germany, France and England's half of the draw. 

When the whistle went for z foul on David Silva, Iniesta was set to take the penalty - he'd taken one against Slovakia in qualifying - but Ramos's confidence saw a late change.

"I was going to take it, but Sergio asked for it and was confident. Only the person that takes it can miss," Iniesta said. 

"The confidence is entirely in whoever wants to take it - unfortunately we missed."

He also admitted things "didn’t go well" in the defeat to Croatia.

A draw would have allowed a match-up against one of the four best third-placed teams, but instead they find themselves against the Italians.

Iniesta granted that things have now become more difficult, but also called on Spain to "remain confident". 

He added: “It’s not good when you lose, but these things happen and now we have to prepare for the game against Italy with the target of going as far as possible.

"In theory we have stronger teams on paper, but you never know. In football these things happen and you have to be prepared for everything, not just for the moments when you’re being praised.

"It hasn’t gone well, but we must move forward. We’re on the more complicated side in theory, but we’re Spain and we must remain confident."

Ramos’s penalty miss aside, the Barcelona midfielder lamented his side’s lack of clear-cut chances. 

"You try to find the best option and sometimes it goes well and other times it doesn’t," he said. 

"We lacked concrete chances and in the end [Croatia] scored on a counter-attack. 

"We went looking for the goal and we were caught out - it shouldn’t have happened but it did.

"We had the penalty and a few more [half chances], but not having any clear-cut chances made everything more complicated."