Marcos Llorente Carlos Soler Sergio Busquets Marco Asensio Luis Enrique Yassine Bounou Spain Portugal Italy Doha Madrid Japan Morocco cup on penalties Marcos Llorente Carlos Soler Sergio Busquets Marco Asensio Luis Enrique Yassine Bounou Spain Portugal Italy Doha Madrid Japan Morocco

Morocco dump Spain out on penalties to reach historic World Cup quarters

channelnewsasia.com

DOHA: Achraf Hakimi struck the decisive penalty in a shootout to send Morocco into the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time on Tuesday (Dec 6) as the African side stunned Spain after a goalless draw.Spain coach Luis Enrique had claimed he set his players the "homework" of taking 1,000 penalties each.But Pablo Sarabia, Carlos Soler and Sergio Busquets all missed from the spot before Madrid-born Hakimi dinked his home as Morocco won the shootout 3-0, to the delight of their raucous support.Walid Regragui's side will face Portugal in what is uncharted territory for them - their previous best run at a World Cup was a last-16 exit in 1986.Spain had been hoping they could repeat their 2010 World Cup triumph after reaching the semi-finals of Euro 2020, where they were also beaten on penalties by Italy.Sevilla goalkeeper Yassine Bounou had other ideas and saved brilliantly from Soler and Busquets, while Sarabia hit the post from the spot."The penalties cost us but I am proud of my team," said Luis Enrique."I take all the responsibility because I chose the first three takers and the players decided the rest - we didn't get to the fourth."Bounou is a great goalkeeper when it comes to penalties and today he was superb."The teams were closely matched throughout a tense game, with Spain having more of the ball but Morocco creating the better openings, few though they were.Luis Enrique trialled his third right-back of the tournament in Marcos Llorente, and benched the team's top scorer Alvaro Morata for Marco Asensio, after the shock defeat by Japan.Spain monopolised the ball, with Morocco's fans furiously whistling when their side were out of possession.Morocco, who are the last African and Arab side left standing at the first

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Spain’s coach Luis Enrique arrives with some members of Spain team at the Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas airport on the outskirts of Madrid on December 7, 2022, one day after being disqualified from the Qatar 2022 World Cup football tournament. – Spain was defeated by Morocco in the last 16 yesterday, falling 3-0 on penalties after 120 goalless minutes. (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP)
DOHA: Spain sacked coach Luis Enrique on Thursday after the 2010 champions were dumped out of the World Cup by Morocco at the last-16 stage earlier this week. Luis de la Fuente was named as Spain's new coach, shortly after the former was sacked on the same day. “Both the president, Luis Rubiales, and the sporting director, Jose Francisco Molina, have told the coach their decision,” the Spanish FA said in a statement.
Luis Enrique has left his role as coach of Spain's national team after the country crashed out of the World Cup by losing on penalties to Morocco.

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