Spanish press round on Luis Enrique’s ‘IMPOTENT’ side after stunning upset by Morocco at World Cup

The Spanish press blasted Luis Enrique’s side as ‘impotent’, having ‘possession for the sake of it’ and lacking ideas after their shock World Cup exit. 

Morocco stunned La Roja, holding on for penalties at 0-0 before dominating the spot kicks to earn a place in the quarter-finals, where they will play Portugal. 

‘Sanseacabo’, was the single word on the front of AS, translating as: ‘That’s the end of that,’ also describing it as a fiasco. While MARCA opted for a picture of Luis Enrique consoling Sergio Busquets along with the headline: ‘The World Cup is too much for us’. 

La Vanguardia labelled Spain ‘impotent’ and Marca described the World Cup exit as a fiasco

Luis Enrique consoled his players after their defeat by Morocco at the World Cup 

El Pais described Spain has having plenty of possession for nothing on the front page

Mundo Deportivo opted for the image of the Morocco players sprinting in celebration

Mundo Deportivo was one of the publications to use the image of Morocco players sprinting from the halfway line in celebration. 

Of course, it wasn’t just the nation’s famous sporting papers to weigh-in, this was front and back page news. 

La Vanguardia picked up on the general consensus that Spain were all bark, no bite and could not turn their domination and control into goals. 

Their headline read: ‘The most impotent Spain return home’. 

One of the only sympathetic verdicts came from El Mundo, who claimed La Roja ‘could not have done more’. 

Barcelona daily Sport blasted the ‘disastrous’ shootout performance, but judged that Spain had ‘clearly dominated’ the match and ‘tried everything but lacked the goal to go through to the quarter-finals’. 

Spain crashed out at the last-16 stage of the World Cup after the penalty shootout 

AS ran the image of Luis Enrique with his hands on his head while El Mundo said the players gave everything but came up short 

No fight, no ideas, no goals – ABC had a scathing verdict on the Spanish exit 

ABC were far more scathing with the simple message: ‘No fight, no ideas, no goals.’ 

And El Pais were equally unimpressed by the Spanish side’s inability to convert their chances. They said: ‘Spain were beaten with a lot of possession for nothing.’ 

‘Maximum penalty for Spain’, said El Periodico de Espana 

Writing for Marca, Spanish football writer Diego Pico questioned Luis Enrique’s future. ‘The first and most important is whether Luis Enrique should continue on the bench of the national team,’ askes Pico. 

‘After two good final phases in the European Championship and in the Nations League, the World Cup has been a major downturn. He has created this group, with this style, but the result has not arrived and the feeling of having failed is evident.’

It could have been so different for the former world champions, who had their chances to kill the game off. 

Pablo Sarabia grazed the far post with a volley from a tight angle late in the second half of extra time but La Roja are left ruing what could have been. 

The penalties were poor from Spain, with Sarabia hitting the post and Morocco keeper Bono saving from Busquets and Carlos Soler.

Achraf Hakimi scored the winning goal with a panenka down the middle from his spot kick