FIFA World Cup Round of 16 : Spain vs Morocco

 In probably the biggest upset in the tournament, Morocco shocked title contenders Spain to reach their first ever quarter finals via penalty shoot outs, which turned out to be a clear one sided affair. Spain's Penalty curse continued, as they lost for the third consecutive tournament in this fashion - & this time failing to score even once !!

The whole game was a story of scratchy play in the midfield followed by occasional burst on counter attack, only to witness poor finishing. While Morocco looked more resolute in defense, their midfield was far more creative to anticipate the slow build up of their opponents, & they just waited with body blocks to thwart the Spanish moves & then run on counter attacks. In fact the first chance of the match actually came Morocco's way, as Hakimi whipped a free kick from around 25 yards, that just sailed over the bar. On the other side Asensio's good run into the box was was wasted with a shot that curled into the side netting. The passage of play was boring & sluggish, but the experts kept saying that Spain would eventually prevail, as the first half came to an end. 

In the 2nd half, Spain again dominated possession, & at one time it showed Spain having completed 800 passes as against just 234 by Morocco, a huge difference on the pitch, but not converting into a goal. This was the bane of Spain, as they were slow in build up, expecting their African opponents to commit a mistake or get overwhelmed, but Morocco were simply clearer in their mind & strategy, which was to stay deep & absorb the pressure, & take the game as far as possible to tire out their diminutive rivals. Spain had their moments, but could not capitalise & the famous tiki taka game play was simply absent. Sofyan Amrabat was the midfield machine for Morocco, as he was near perfect in his possession, interception & screening, covering almost every part of the ground, with Boufal, Ziyech, & Hakimi all combining well around him. It was a masterclass performance to neutralise the Spanish attack. 

Extra time hardly created any urgency in the Spanish attack, as they kept on slowly building their attack, allowing their opponents to regroup. Still in the final moments of the game, substitute Sarabia's strike hit the post & went out, as the referee whistled for the penalty shoot outs. 

In the penalties, it was a more relaxed & confident Morocco, against a rather tense Spain, who seem to brood & go into a shell - the self belief so common with them seemed to have deserted them. Sarabia came to take the first kick, & his shot hit the post to go out(very similar to his last shot in the game). Soler next too tried a weak placement, which Bono saved gleefully, while captain Busquets coming in for the third kick also was poor with his shot, easily saved by Bono - on the other hand Morocco converted the first two kicks confidently, as Unai Simon stopped the third to give Spain a faint hope, only for Hakimi to step up & score to win the penalties 3-0 for Morocco, Spain with an astonishing blank, were out of the tournament. It was an unbelievable sight to see veterans in the Spanish side, make a hash of their shots - such poor attempts, that left coach Enrique staring into a gloomy space. 

In reality, Spain did not deserve to win. They took things for granted in the last group stage game to lose to Japan, but did not learn from that game & paid a very heavy price today with an exit in the round of 16. 

Morocco are now undefeated in their last 5 games in World Cup, & now they await the winners of Portugal & Switzerland & looking at their resilience, one can expect more from them. In the group stages, they drew with Croatia first & then defeated Belgium & Canada, & now consumed Spain - outstanding performance indeed.