The former England and Manchester United defender infamously declared La Roja would not win the tournament due to players like Cucurella.
He recalled to Marca: "I remember it well, it was before our first match. We sent the statement to the group from Claudia (his wife) and my agents. Claudia wanted to answer him straight away, but I told her to wait: it was too early. Then we went ahead in the tournament and we decided to wait until we faced England in the final to win and answer there.
"Right after the match we went on the attack.
"No, I didn't. Claudia did. She was like, 'Can I publish it now?' And I was like, 'Yeah, go ahead'.
"More than special, I also thought that if they had beaten us, I would not have been able to go back there. They would have spent the whole year making fun of me and saying everything.
"But it was the match where I was most relaxed, I felt that we would win. We already knew it was ours, and so it was."