Spain’s Fernando Hierro may be on the hot seat now that the nation have crashed out of the World Cup with a loss to Russia on penalties in the last 16 tie, but the coach doesn’t believe it’s time to be concerned about his future.

After Spain and Russia were knotted at one apiece after 90 minutes and extra time, the hosts pulled out the victory by triumphing 4-3 in a shootout. While Russia netted their first four spot-kicks, Koke and Iago Aspas saw their attempts saved by Igor Akinfeev.

Failure to advance despite being the heavy favourite puts Hierro under the spotlight, especially after he was brought in as a replacement for Julen Lopetegui, who was sacked on the eve of the tournament.

Nevertheless, Hierro isn’t sweating just yet.

“That doesn’t not worry me, I don’t think it’s something for right now,” he said of his role with Spain.

“Now we need to share this difficult moment. We all wanted to great things at this tournament.

“We’re talking about a generation of extraordinary players and we haven’t been performing at the level we expect in the World Cup.”

Hierro added: “We had opportunities to win this match but we ended up in a penalty shootout which is basically a lottery, and we weren’t lucky.

“I don’t think you can talk about the team breaking down or there being any sort of collapse.”

“In football there’s a fine line between winning and losing.”