Spain’s women’s national basketball team head coach, Miguel Méndez, faced the media after a tough 65-67 loss to Belgium in the Eurobasket final. The Spanish squad, which had built a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter, fell short in the title match against a strong rival due to a costly turnover with just eight seconds remaining. Méndez, who has been with Spain since 2021 and has devoted his career to women’s basketball, repeatedly highlighted the determination and pride of his players, who never stopped believing. They defied expectations to reach the decisive game and kept their title hopes alive until the very end.

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Alongside Méndez, captain Alba Torrens—a cornerstone of the team and a player who has defined a generation—also spoke. Named to the tournament’s All-Star Five, Torrens delivered an outstanding performance and took the opportunity to praise her teammates. “I want to congratulate Belgium. They were the favorites from the start,” she said. “They played great basketball over 10 days. I also want to congratulate my teammates. Building a team in just a month and playing well, sharing the ball and defending strongly, is not easy. This is a painful moment for us, but the sun will come up tomorrow. That’s sports.”

Méndez echoed those sentiments: “I think we played a great game today, and it wasn’t easy. I’m proud of my team, my teammates, and the coaching staff. We saw a lot of positive things, and we had to build this team in just a few days. I value all the work we put in. What we achieved came as a team.”

Both the coach and the player insisted that the silver medal is an achievement, not a loss. “For me, this is a success. It’s not easy to play basketball like this. They took their chance to win. But if I had to replay the game, I’d use the same plan. I don’t know what the future holds, but we must keep working,” Méndez said. Torrens added: “This is a winning team. The younger players and the veterans all wanted it. It hurts because it matters to us, but I want to convey to the younger ones the value of this medal. How hard it is to be here. We leave with our heads held high. This will be a motivation to come back stronger. We competed and we’re taking home a medal of immense value.”

The captain expressed pride in her teammates and their accomplishments. “Being in this position many times is valuable. In sports, the line is very thin. I don’t want the result to overshadow what we’ve achieved. There are days we win by two and days we lose by two. But I don’t want the score to hide how we competed. We surpassed ourselves. This medal has great value, and in a few hours, we’ll surely feel it.”

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When asked about the heartbreaking finish—where Spain squandered a 12-point lead and lost possession with eight seconds left, allowing Belgium to take the lead—Méndez explained: “If we had won, no one would have been surprised, but that’s sports. It’s a tough moment, a very cruel way to lose, especially for the younger players. We were ambitious and went for the game from the start. We came to give everything, but in the end, we made a mistake.” He added: “We competed at a high level, and the result doesn’t change that.”