Mourinho blames Spain's exit on 'inflexibility'

Arguably the happiest man in Europe on Wednesday was Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho. 

Spain's demise and the end of an era for a team that dominated international football for six years had to be a joyous sight for Mourinho, the man who was chased out of Madrid after wearing out his welcome with Real. He didn't get along with his counterparts at Barcelona either.

Mourinho, currently serving as Yahoo's Global Football Ambassador during the summer, offered his thoughts on the end of Spain's reign. The Special One felt Spain's lack of tactical guile was their undoing.

I think it is fair to say that there is a big responsibility in Holland and Chile (for Spain's downfall). They did what I think in modern football you have to do – you have to be strategic

Holland and Chile were very good from a strategic point of view, and Spain couldn’t cope with it in my opinion.

People learn how to play against the best teams and when the best teams play always believing that their philosophy is the one, the other people learn.

Spain was so amazing in the past four, six years – they were so amazing in the way that they were playing football – that people learn, people look, people study.

Mourinho also reserved high praise for Dutch manager and future Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal and Chilean manager Jorge Sampaoli. 

"Louis van Gaal was brilliant in the way he analysed and he prepared the game against Spain but today, Jorge Sampaoli even more," said Mourinho.

"We have to be fair, and instead of saying Spain didn’t play well – which I agree with – we have to be fair and say Chile did an amazing work and congratulations to the coach Sampaoli."