Pablo Sarabia / Photo: © REUTERS/Pedro Nunes
Luis Enrique made a bet on an experienced player, but miscalculated badly.
The first sensation at the stage ⅛ of the World Cup finals in Qatar occurred. Spain are knocked out of the tournament after losing to Morocco on penalties. Luis Enrique’s wards, as always, had a total advantage in possession of the ball, but failed to translate it into goals.
And the decision of the head coach of the “red fury” before the series of 11-meter shots became completely fatal. The collapse of the Spaniards began after a miss by Pablo Sarabia, whom Enrique released specifically for a penalty shootout.
The bet in the last minutes did not play.
Toothless attack
In the first half, the Spaniards did not change their favorite tactics, surpassing the Moroccans in the number of passes by almost three times and owning the ball 69% of the time. At the same time, it was completely impossible to break through the defense of the Spanish attackers – the goalkeeper of the African team, Yassin Bunu, had practically no work. At the same time, the Moroccan counterattacks looked much nicer than the Spanish sluggish transitions into someone else’s penalty area, and the Africans had more chances to score. In the first 45 minutes, the Moroccan team made three shots on the opponent’s goal, one of which was on target. The Spaniards were able to answer with only one shot wide of the goal.
It would seem that with such a trend, Enrique would need to make any changes to the game of his team. However, the coach did not change anything, and the match continued in the same spirit. Spain brought the percentage of ownership to a crazy 86%, but did not squeeze any dividends out of it. Center forward Alvaro Morata’s appearance on the field did not fundamentally change anything. The Moroccan team withstood the opponent’s positional attacks and again tried to snap back. In general, the game turned out to be utterly boring, and the transition to overtime looked fair.
It is easy to guess that in extra time the picture of the game remained the same. Although it was the Moroccans who had a great chance to score: Walid Heddira went one on one with the Spanish goalkeeper, but Unai Simon pulled the ball brilliantly, having managed to put his foot out. The match went to a penalty shoot-out and in front of it, the Spaniards coach Luis Enrique made a fatal mistake.
Open video
Even at the end of the second extra half, in the 118th minute, the coach deliberately released midfielder Pablo Sarabia on the field with the expectation of an impending penalty shootout. At the very end of overtime, Pablo was even close to a goal, but from an acute angle after throwing into the penalty area, he hit the post. The player’s bad luck continued in the 11-meter series. Pablo was the first of the Spaniards to take the shot and… hit the post again!
Apparently, this development of events broke the “red fury”. Moroccan goalkeeper Yassin Bunu pulled the next two blows from the Spaniards, and with a score of 3:0, the African team took over. Sarabia and Enrique, who released him on the field, will now have a hard time. A portion of criticism is provided for both.
Open video
World Championship. 1/8 finals
Morocco 0-0 Spain (3-0 on pen.)
