Morocco kicked Spain out of the 2022 World Cup

In the series of brainstorms to determine the next rate, Spain did not kick any ball. Pablo Sarabia hit the post, Soler and Busquets were all blocked by goalkeeper Yaccine Bono. In contrast, Morocco only missed one, when Bilal El Khannous failed to beat Unai Simon in the third round. The North African team won 3-0 thanks to kicks from Abdelhamid Sabiri, Hakim Zizech and a finish from Achraf Hakimi.

This result put Morocco into the quarterfinals of the World Cup for the first time, extending the unexpected streak they created in Qatar this year. Before that, the army of coach Walid Regragui in turn drew defending runner-up Croatia 0-0, defeated giants Belgium 2-0 and then won Canada 2-1 to top Group F. After eliminating Spain in round 1// 8, Morocco also equaled the record of African football at the World Cup - where previously only Cameroon in 1990 and Senegal in 2002 reached the final round of 8 teams.

Spain had a very good opportunity to finish the match in the last minute of extra time of the second extra time. Sarabia - the player who was launched on the field by coach Luis Enrique in the 119th minute to prepare for the penalty shootout - moved into the penalty area to catch a high pass, then put his right foot. Bono - the Morocco keeper who had been playing well from the start - was defeated in this situation, but the ball cut the goal, licked the edge of the far post and went out.

If Sarabia scores in the above situation, Spain will not enter a penalty shootout in the knockout stage of major tournaments in more than four years. At the 2018 World Cup, they fell 3-4 at the hands of host Russia. And at Euro 2020 last summer, Luis Enrique's army defeated Switzerland 3-1 in the quarterfinals, before losing 2-4 to Italy in a series of brainstorms in the semi-finals.

Perhaps because of the penalty shootout two times in a row just last summer, coach Enrique, as he admitted at the pre-match press conference, had carefully prepared for the scenario where victory and defeat had to be resolved with a series of brainstorms.

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