Spain (pictured top) lost 1-0 to both Japan and Honduras as they made a shock exit from the tournament without even scoring a goal.

Considering that many of the players were involved in Spain's European Under-19 and Under-21 victories in recent years, and others were part of the successful team which won the European Championship this summer, Spain were one of the favourites to win a gold medal in football.

"We were very surprised by what happened with the football team," Blanco told insidethegames.

"I have been through many competitions and that is what can happen in an Olympic Games.

"All the teams come here to win and so it is very important to win the first match.

"If you win that, you have more security.

"If you lose the first match and in the second match they have a goal in the first 10 minutes that starts making you nervous.

Jerry Bengtson of Honduras celebrates after scoring against Spain in the Group D match

"We think Spain played much better than Honduras but did not have a goal as they hit the post a few times, and there were refereeing decisions which were maybe unfair.

"So that makes the team very anxious and you have to keep calm and go on and it did not happen."

Blanco said that they lacked crucial experience, and drew on an example from Barcelona's 3-1 victory at Real Madrid in La Liga last season to demonstrate his point.

He said that after Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes made an error in the opening seconds of the match, which led to a Real Madrid goal, it was Xavi's experience which helped Barcelona recover.

Straight from the restart of that match Xavi passed the ball back to Valdes, putting him in the same position from which he had given Real Madrid the opening goal and allowing him to regain his composure, and Blanco says that type of mentality and know-how was missing from the Under-21 team.

"The difference between our senior team and the under-21s is that they [the seniors] know how to handle the situation when there has been a mistake.

"The under-21s did not know how to resolve the nerves, the excitement, they forget that they have to relax, be calm and start thinking about the match.

"This team is incredible," he added, saying that players from this team could go to the World Cup in Brazil in 2014 and retain Spain's title.

"Every player is playing in the first team [of major teams] – Juan Mata, David De Gea, Cesar Azpilicueta, Alvaro Dominguez, Inigo Martinez, Jordi Alba, Javi Martinez.

"It is very important to handle critical situations – these guys are the best players we have, but because of the lack of experience it happened."

Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea misses a save during Spain's match against Honduras

Blanco did add though that he felt it would be very difficult for the next generation of Spanish players to repeat the success the current senior team have had.

They are the first country to win three major international tournaments in a row since Uruguay claimed two Olympic titles and a Copa America crown in the 1920s.

But the Spanish Olympic chief insisted he was not concerned about his country's medal prospects at the Olympics, despite the departure of one of their strongest teams so early on.

Blanco said he was more interested in having a strong team which showed consistency over four-year cycles rather than one which only peaked for the Olympic Games.

"For me the most important thing is the number of classifications for the Olympics...we have 282 athletes.

"For me it is most important is to have medals in different sports than to have more medals in less sports.

Alejandro Blanco during a Madrid 2020 press conference last week

"Spain has possibilities in basketball, handball, water polo, hockey, and football had a very good possibility.

"In other sports – canoeing, synchronised swimming, cycling, taekwondo, judo, sailing – Spain has very big possibilities.

"For me this is important – after our football team is out, no problem, in the next competition we will be the winner."

Blanco points out that Spain has 474 medallists in world and European championships in the last four-year cycle, but refused to specify the number of medals he hoped they would win this summer, joking that "I am asked this question only a minimum of 20 times every day."

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