St Petersburg: Spain’s World Cup roller-coaster ride finally ground to a halt Sunday and the finger-pointing began after their third consecutive failure at a major tournament.
Following humiliation at the hands of the Netherlands in 2014 and a limp defeat to Italy at Euro 2016, this was perhaps the most galling exit of all, given it came at the hands of Russia, ranked 70th in the world, just above Macedonia and El Salvador.
Julen Lopetegui, the coach fired two days before Spain’s opening match, and Luis Rubiales, the Spanish Football Federation president who fired him, will be circled as the key offenders. But Fernando Hierro, Lopetegui’s replacement, and David de Gea, who endured a torrid tournament in goal, will take their share of the blame too.
“What started badly, ended badly,” wrote sports daily ‘Marca’. “All the problems began with the dismissal of Lopetegui and then continued with a team lacking in form and ideas.”
Rubiales was quick to make clear he felt no remorse for sacking Lopetegui. However, he said he was saddened by Spain’s early exit.
“Today there is pain, as we have been eliminated,” Rubiales said Monday. “But you can be calm when you know you have acted with responsibility, conviction and values. You cannot later look in hindsight because of a result on the pitch.”
But for all the talk of tactics and generational change, Spain’s 2018 World Cup will be remembered for a simple act of self-sabotage. This was the team that was ready and then on the eve of the tournament, sacked their coach.
Meanwhile Spain coach Fernando Hierro said Sunday it was not the right time to contemplate his future after his team crashed out to World Cup hosts Russia.
“That doesn’t worry me, I don’t think it’s something for right now,” said Hierro when asked about his future in the role. “Now we need to share this difficult moment. We all wanted to great things at this tournament because we haven’t been performing at the level we expect in the World Cup.”
Hierro rejected any suggestions the team would have fared better had the Spanish federation not decided to axe Lopetegui after arriving in Russia.
“We had opportunities to win this (Russia) match but we ended up in a penalty shootout which is basically a lottery, and we weren’t lucky,” he pointed out.
The Spanish media however, took the team to task. “Walking all the way home,” was the headline in ‘Marca’ while the cover of the ‘AS’ said, “The end of a generation.”
“Penalties threw Spain out a World Cup which, if we’re honest, will not miss them. Spain didn’t play well in any of their games,” added the editorial in ‘AS’.
