"I couldn't care less about the result," Luis Enrique had said in the build-up to Spain's latest bid to get past the World Cup's first knockout round. He will care about this one, a magnificent Morocco instead earning the best in their history and a first-ever quarter-final place with it.
It came in a penalty shootout, just as it did against Russia four years ago at the same stage, Enrique’s homework assignment to “take 1,000 penalties” before this tournament a year ago evidently not undertaken. Pablo Sarabia, Carlos Soler and Sergio Busquets all erred from 12 yards this time before Achraf Hakimi impudently showed them how it was supposed to be done. They should’ve taken 1,001.
David Villa was the hero the last time Spain won a last-16 game at a World Cup. El Guaje, now 41, isn’t a kid anymore. How the team he once called his own needed him here.
This story is from the December 07, 2022 edition of The Independent.
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This story is from the December 07, 2022 edition of The Independent.
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