In light of Thursday’s thrilling Group E finale, Luis Enrique claims he would have “had a heart attack” if he had known Spain was momentarily on its way out of the World Cup.
Samurai Blue defeated Spain 2-1 at the Khalifa International Stadium, with Japan rallying from a deficit after Alvaro Morata’s early goal.
La Roja entered the match at the top of the standings but needed a point to ensure progression without a doubt.
Even though they failed to accomplish that, Germany’s 4-2 victory over Costa Rica in another match meant Luis Enrique’s team would continue to compete, placing Die Nationalelf in second place behind Japan.
Spain, though, entirely dropped out of the top two for a brief period while Costa Rica took the lead in Germany.
Luis Enrique stated that he was ignorant and that he was appreciative of his ignorance.
“We were knocked out for three minutes? Why do you say this? I was not paying attention,” Luis Enrique said with a look of bemusement. “When did that happen?
“Okay, fantastic. I didn’t know this. Why? Because I was paying attention to my match. If I’d have found out, I’d have had a heart-attack.”
Of course, the defeat ultimately cost Spain little because many will argue their immediate path in the knockout stages is now kinder than it would have been if they won the group.
Topping Group E would have put them on track to face Croatia next and potentially Brazil in the quarter-finals.
Finishing as runners-up means they are now likely to come up against Portugal in the last eight, assuming La Roja get beyond Morocco.
Well, that was certainly a day 😅#FIFAWorldCup | #Qatar2022
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 1, 2022
Avoid talking about manipulating results. Prior to this game, Brazil dominated the news cycle, but Luis Enrique was not in the mood to celebrate advancement given how close Spain came to packing their bags.
“In football there are no good or bad sides,” he added. “In football you deserve or not and today I’m not happy at all.
“Yes, we qualified, I’d have liked to be top by winning this game, but this was not possible because in five minutes they got two goals, and in 10 minutes we were completely out.
“We were dismantled. We tried to close the game, but it wasn’t possible. But we didn’t have any danger in the first half, then in the second… I told them in half-time [Japan] will push us, they had nothing to lose.
“We didn’t have good game management, we collapsed. I’m not happy, I never celebrate defeats.
“I have nothing to celebrate. Of course, the bracket changes and many things are different, but I have nothing to celebrate.”
Japan’s winning goal by Ao Tanaka was somewhat controversial in nature, as replays showed the ball was agonisingly close to going out of play before Kaoru Mitoma’s cut-back to the match-winner.
Luis Enrique was shown an image of the situation and was left concluding it to be fake.
“I saw the images, they must be wrong or fabricated,” he said. “I saw an image and said that can’t be true.
“I have nothing else to say. I have full respect. I knew something going on as VAR took so long.”