Spanish press calls Morocco elimination ‘monumental coup’

The elimination on penalties for Morocco in the round of 16 of the World Cup in Qatar was seen by the Spanish press as a fiasco.

For Marca, it was a “monumental blow”, the elimination of a “mediocre” team.

“Spain leaves the World Cup with a victory over Costa Rica, the day the skies opened prematurely. From that day on, they descended the slope that ended in a deadly roulette against Morocco”, says the newspaper.

Sport was milder and called the elimination the “cruelest farewell to Spain in a World Cup”. For the newspaper, the team deserved to have won in normal time and arrived at the penalty shoot-out exhausted.

Mundo Deportivo focused its criticism on the attack, saying that “Luis Enrique’s men failed to score a single goal in Morocco, not even from the penalty spot” — Spain lost all three they took in the final.

Other European newspapers highlighted the Moroccan feat, such as Gazzetta, from Italy, which considered the classification as “historic”.

The English Guardian made a pun with the Moroccan goalkeeper and the lead singer of the band U2, both called Bono. “Bono had his ‘beautiful day’ [um lindo dia] and Morocco goes to the quarterfinals”, wrote the newspaper, citing one of the Irish band’s hit songs and the two penalties saved by the goalkeeper.