Sadness. Disappointment. And a unanimous and clear message that the footballers repeated like a mantra. “We are leaving in the cruelest way. We have not deserved to lose". There was no consolation after the defeat of Morocco that not only eliminates Spain from the World Cup but also raises many questions before a possible end of the cycle with players like captain Sergio Busquets who at 34 years old very probably played his last World Cup "The important thing is the team, not me. This is a very tough night. It should serve as experience for a very young team with a great future," said the captain with a tone that sounded like a farewell. Morocco to Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos as the players with the most starts for Spain (17) in the history of the World Cup.
“We will try to convince Busi and the veterans that we need them. As for the mister, if it depended on me, I would tie him here for life. He is the ideal coach for this team, but we will see what happens, ”said Ferran Torres. "End of cycle? These are issues that do not concern me, it is time to be united. It's cruel to end like this, we played a good game but without hurting our opponents. You get to penalties and you know that anything can happen. And we had rehearsed it but it has not come out. And here Morocco has been superior”, added Marcos Llorente, much less convincing.
In goal was Unai Simón who managed to stop one of the four penalties taken. “I had a paper with a small study of how Moroccan players shot. But it's a lottery. You don't know when they are going to change a decision, ”he confessed. "In the final minutes I thought more about the occasions we've had as Sarabia's strike", declared the Athletic Club goalkeeper.
“Actually we have made merits during the game. But when the eleven defend in their field it is complicated. We lacked luck in the last pass", justified Sergio Busquets while Ferran Torres added a new element. The referee. "I don't like to go into these things, there have been times that we have played against 12. Let's keep working."
“I wish we had passed, I wish someone up there would have helped us with penalties, because we deserved to pass. We have given everything, I think we deserved to go through but in the end it is like that. Soccer does not understand justice, it understands that the ball enters. Words don't come out of me”, summed up Rodri, a Manchester City footballer. “We started well against Costa Rica, we played a great game against Germany, we had a 10-minute mistake against Japan that we paid for and today we were good but Morocco ended up taking it on penalties. It's our turn to go home," said Llorente. The Spanish team will leave Doha tomorrow.
