Before their round of 16 tie, Morocco coach Walid Regragrui described Spain’s famed ‘tiki taka’ style of play as ‘boring’.
A common criticism, often made in miserly tones and perhaps a little disingenuous. Spain’s pass-intensive, positional strategy can be wonderful to watch, but it certainly can be rendered boring by an obdurate and equally miserly defence.
In the end, nobody was bored when the Morocco players celebrated reaching the World Cup quarter finals for the first time in their history. In fact, they’re the first Arab nation ever to reach the last eight.
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Regragrui’s team had already defeated Belgium to help qualify from Group F and will have taken heart from that. However, that never meant they were going to go wild and the game played out as expected. Spain dominated possession, the North Africans defended deep and looked to counterattack.
It worked exactly as intended from a Moroccan point of view. Spain huffed and puffed but couldn’t blow the house down. Morocco were threatening on the break, but maintaining their compact shape meant they couldn’t keep the ball in Spain’s half.
The second half was, frankly, boring as the Moroccan threat faded and Spain continued to apply pressure.
Heroic defending from Morocco, solid goalkeeping from Bounou and a glaring Alvaro Morata miss meant the game went to extra time. Again Spain had all of the ball, but couldn’t fashion any clear cut chances. More last-ditch defending and spurned Spain chances kept the score even at 0-0, and penalties were required.
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Given Spain’s pedigree and experience, you would have expected them to handle the occasion better than their opponents. The Moroccans dispatched their penalties relatively comfortably, while Spain tamely missed their first three.
Even the totemic Sergio Busquets seemed to falter under pressure and miss, giving Achraf Hakimi the opportunity to send his team through, which he took with an unbelievably cool panenka straight down the middle.
Portugal or Switzerland await in the quarter finals, and hopefully Morocco’s fans will be finished partying by then.
