Iniesta inspire spain to victory.

Andres Iniesta produced a man of the match performance in Spain's 1-0 win over Czech Republic on Monday. Adam Bate was in Toulouse to see the latest masterclass...

"He played very well but I don't think it's about individuals," said Vicente del Bosque afterwards. It was a nice try but nobody was convinced. Andres Iniesta was the best player on the pitch even before he'd curled a cross onto the head of Gerard Pique late on to ensure Spain kicked off their Euro 2016 campaign with a win over Czech Republic.

The man of the match award was adjudicated by a former team-mate of Iniesta's in Carlos Marchena but there was no favouritism here. Just an acknowledgement from his fellow Euro 2008 squad member that the Barcelona midfielder continues to be the catalyst for his national team even eight years after that shared triumph. He's never been more important.
The statistics told some, but not all, of the story. Iniesta found a team-mate with 85 of his 93 passes and created five chances. He completed more dribbles than anyone else and, of course, came up with the game-deciding assist. But it was the intent that separated him from the rest; the awareness that saw him speed up the game when it was needed.
There were the threaded passes through to Jordi Alba that broke the Czech defensive line. There were the drilled balls into the feet of team-mates around the area in an attempt to inject life into a stuttering attack. Either side of the break he created further chances for Alba and Alvaro Morata - even trying an audacious chip over Petr Cech from 35 yards out.

For the most part though, patience was the watchword. "There's not a single way of breaking down these teams," he explained. "You have to be calm and patient and keep going forwards until you get the result you want." Perhaps it's no surprise that the goal came late either. With Barca, he has seen that many times before too.
I'm not a player that's had to do a lot of running without the ball like that," he said with characteristic understatement. "But I'm sure that running 90 minutes without the ball is very difficult so it's not easy to go on like that." Eventually, the Czechs succumbed. There was always another pass; always another cross. And there was always Iniesta.

It was the performance of a player embracing the occasion. "I always try to have a high responsibility when I play," he said afterwards when asked if his seniority necessitated such an approach. "It's not about the moment, I enjoy football and that's how I try to do it. It's no different now. We all have to give our best, so in that sense I try not to shirk responsibility."