Spain Round of 16 Review: La Maldición Mundial

La Liga Lowdown

It's over. Spain are out of the World Cup. Their exit comes at the Round of 16 stage once again, falling on penalties, just like they did four years ago in Russia.

This campaign promised so much more, from the togetherness of the group to the charismatic leadership of Luis Enrique. But it wasn't to be. The inquest has already begun in terms of his future and the direction of the national team, who still haven't won a knockout game at the World Cup since 2010.

Matt Clark (@MattClark_08) is joined by a sorrowful Paco Polit (@pacopolitENG) for the postmortem. We review the match against Morocco, assess where it went wrong for Spain, and evaluate the campaign as a whole.

In Part Two we give credit to the Atlas Lions and their coach Walid Regraugi for their momentous achievement, becoming only the fourth African side ever to qualify for the World Cup quarter-finals. We then turn our attention to the ramifications of this unexpected Spanish failure, looking in particular at the futures of the senior players and Lucho himself.

Check out our Substack (lllonline.substack.com) for more reaction and analysis, and follow us @LaLigaLowdown for ongoing coverage of the World Cup and more.

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