Out for three minutes, still in the tournament thanks to Germany and the coach close to a heart attack. Spain's team and the entire football nation are still shocked after the 2-1 defeat against Japan at the World Cup.
"Gracias, Alemania", headlined "Mundo Deportivo" after the memorable football evening in Qatar, the trade journal "As" even wrote it in bold letters in German: "Thank you!"
Actually, the two coaches Luis Enrique and Hansi Flick had agreed to meet for the final on December 18 in the Lusial Stadium after the 1-1 draw between the two former world champions Spain and Germany - "as if we were a couple," said the Spanish coach at the time moody. In the end, however, the mutually assured affection wasn't great enough: with the bankruptcy against Japan, Spain helped ensure that the DFB selection had to fly home. Germany's lackluster performances and a tenuous 4-2 win against Costa Rica at the end helped the Spaniards into the knockout phase of the tournament.
Enrique: "How? We were outside?"
After the thriller evening, Luis Enrique was far too busy with himself and his team for Flick's fate to affect him at the moment. His players and the Japanese on the pitch knew full well that the 2-1 draw would take both teams to the round of 16 - and in the closing stages made a sort of non-aggression pact. For Spain this means: Morocco instead of Croatia in the round of 16, Germany out as a possible rival and a threatening World Cup quarter-final duel with Brazil cleverly avoided.
Luis Enrique only found out in the press conference that his team was out of the tournament for three minutes during the lively calculation game on the last day of the preliminary round: "What? We were out? I didn't know, I was focused on the game. I would have one otherwise had a heart attack," said the 52-year-old at Al-Rajjan's Chalifa International Stadium. "Que susto!" was also the headline in Sport." "What a shock!"
"Ten Minute Panic"
The Spain coach spoke of "ten minutes of panic" given the two goals conceded right after the break. And: "Football is sometimes an inexplicable sport." The winning goal by the Düsseldorf professional Ao Tanaka (51st minute) was only given after minutes of video evidence. The ball had crossed the goal line before Kaoru Mitoma put it in, according to the Spaniards.
At the moment, Luis Enrique was downright irritated by the photos of the ball circulating on the internet. "I saw an image that must have been manipulated. It can't be the real image. It must have been manipulated," he said, puzzling just after midnight: "I realized something strange must have happened because the VAR was like that took a long time." His Japanese colleague Hajime Moriyasu said straight-faced: "We have fantastic technology in football now: if the ball had been out, the goal would not have counted."
The German end? "This is football"
In any case, before the first knockout game on Tuesday (6:00 p.m.) against Morocco, the mood of the 2010 Spanish world champions has changed: on the one hand, the tournament tree now looks friendlier. On the other hand, Spain really didn't look like a tournament favourite. "I have nothing to celebrate, I'm not happy at all. If Japan needed two more goals, they would have put them in for us," said Luis Enrique, visibly upset. He now has to "raise the spirits of the players".
The Japanese are just as euphoric as after the 2-1 coup against Germany at the start. Croatia, who finished second in the 2018 World Cup, is waiting for them. "Everyone is talking about a miracle, but I don't see it that way. We've become more and more aggressive," said Tanaka, who was surprisingly preferred to Stuttgart's Wataru Endo in defensive midfield . And the German Aus? "This is football," Tanaka commented casually. Spanish and Japanese professionals strolled through the exit of the stadium in a good mood and with happy faces.
