They say practice makes perfect. Try telling that to Spain’s coach Luis Enrique.
He set each of his players the “homework” of practising 1,000 penalties ahead of the World Cup, saying he is convinced they are not a lottery.
The 2010 world champions faced Morocco in the last 16 on Wednesday and of course, the two teams held each other scoreless, forcing penalties to decide who would move through.
It looked like Enrique’s insistence on practising penalties would pay off but instead Spain missed all their attempts as Morocco moved through.
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Spain beat Switzerland on penalties at last year’s Euro 2020 but were eliminated on spot-kicks by Italy in the semi-finals.
“Over a year ago, in one of the Spain camps, I told them they had to get here with at least 1,000 penalties taken,” Luis Enrique said earlier in the week.
“I imagine that they have done their homework. If you wait until getting here to practise penalties… (it won’t be enough).”
The Spaniard insisted spot kicks were “not a lottery”.
“It’s a moment of maximum tension, a time to show your nerve, and that you can shoot the penalty in the way you have decided, if you have trained it a thousand times,” he said.
“It says a lot about each player. It’s trainable, manageable, how you manage the tension. It’s increasingly less luck — the goalkeepers have more influence.
“We have a very good goalkeeper, any of the three can do very well in this situation. Every time we finish training I see a lot of players taking penalties.”
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Sergio Busquets said Spain’s 3-0 defeat on penalties by Morocco was a “cruel” way to decide the World Cup last-16 clash.
The midfielder’s spot-kick was saved by goalkeeper Yassine Bounou as the 2010 World Cup winners failed to score any of their penalties.
“It was a pity. It was decided on penalties in the most cruel way,” said Busquets.
“It was tough, very hard for us. We tried to wear them down, give them the run-around, find spaces. We lacked that little luck for the final ball.”
Spain goalkeeper Unai Simon was the hero in Euro 2020 against Switzerland in a quarter-final shoot-out but on this occasion he could only stop one of Morocco’s efforts.
“I think in the 120 minutes of the game we were superior to our opponents, but what I say counts for little now if we can’t find the net,” added Simon, who saved Badr Benoun’s penalty.
“In the shoot-out they were superior and that is what took them to the quarter-finals.
“We are seeing that there are surprises throughout the World Cup. We were not capable of overcoming them and we did not expect to be eliminated against Morocco, but it’s the reality and now we have to go home.”
