Spain boss Vicente del Bosque admitted a round-of-16 clash against Italy is not the fixture they wanted after a defeat to Croatia saw the defending European champions finish second in Group D.
A late winner from Ivan Perisic sealed a 2-1 comeback victory for the Croatians, who usurped Spain to finish top and leave Del Bosque's side with a repeat of the Euro 2012 final against Italy in Paris on Monday.
Alvaro Morata's early goal had given Spain the lead but Nikola Kalinic equalised just before half-time.
Spain defender Sergio Ramos saw a penalty saved and Perisic finished passed David De Gea at his near-post to complete a memorable comeback for Ante Cacic's side.
Spain are now in the same half of the Euro 2016 draw as Italy, Germany, France and England and Del Bosque conceded facing Italy so early on was not on his agenda.
"It's a game it looked like we had under control," he said. "We will try and recover as well as possible from this setback and be in as good condition as possible on Monday.
"Even today we didn't play badly but this is the result and we need to prepare to play against Italy.
"The players were sat in silence. They don't enjoy losing.
"I'm not going to defend our performance excessively but I think we played quite well. It was just one slip of concentration at the end.
"I don't have any complaints about the players. We have time to analyse what the game against Italy means.
"We're still in the competition, we are not on the path we wanted to be but we have to rise to the situation."
Del Bosque also defended his team selection after picking the same lineup three games in a row.
"I think they may be tired," he said. That's normal playing a game in this temperature against this team, but I think we were in good condition to play this game.
"We don't have a scientific way of saying these [players] can play, or these can't play. We have lots of confidence in the physical condition of our players."