World Cup 2018: Spain win the group but end with more questions than answers

Having started this World Cup in search of reassurance, Spain enter the knockout phase still shaky and uncertain

Remember when Julen Lopetegui was dismissed as manager of the Spanish national team a mere day before the World Cup began? You do remember a time before the World Cup began, don’t you? Before ‘Mel from Mel and Sue’ replaced the metric system? It really was not that long ago. Less than a fortnight back, in fact.

It is 12 days, to be precise, since the mania that met Lopetegui’s dismissal. Before tonight, Luis Rubiales, the president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), had long been overtaken in the news cycle by two-headed eagles, Chechen warlords and bears playing the vuvuzela. For all the complaints about the timing of his decision, it turns out the eve of a World Cup is a good time to bury bad news.

Yet questions regarding Lopetegui’s sacking - this tournament’s first big storyline - were still there all along, simmering in the background. As the clock wound down with the score at 1-1 in Kaliningrad, it would only take a late Morocco goal to bring them to the fore. Youssef En-Nesyri’s emphatic header did just that.

Spain progress still, from a group that transpired to be more competitive than expected, and incredibly they do so as group winners. Yet this was progression in a most unconvincing fashion. Rubiales and Fernando Hierro are reprieved, but their reckoning may only be postponed. If the decision to dismiss Lopetegui was a brave but outrageous gamble, this fortunate point against an already-eliminated team means their bet seems only more unlikely to pay off.

In time since the decision, Spain have suffered the frustration of the 3-3 with Portugal, the uneasiness of the 1-0 victory over Iran and now the relief of a late, controversial 2-2 draw with Morocco, which could have ended so very differently for them.

Hierro’s side probably emerged from the first round of group games looking the strongest of any side in the tournament. Though their meeting with Portugal in Sochi ended in disappointment, a team in turmoil was only undone by a masterful Cristiano Ronaldo and an uncharacteristic David de Gea error. Otherwise, the poise and control exerted that night, the link-up play in attack and the all-round performance offered promise.

Yet little of that poise, control and clever link-up play has been witnessed in the two outings since - against Group B’s two weakest sides, two sides that pre-tournament favourites should be expected to beat. Iran, with more composed finishing, would beaten them. Had Carlos Queiroz’s side taken just one of their opportunities in Kazan and drawn, they would be in the round of 16 at Spain’s expense.

If the display against Iran should have tempered expectations, this draw with Morocco should be more sobering still. The biggest concern should be the defence, which worryingly looked suspect to pace and movement in behind as well as aerial prowess. Gerard Pique is 31-years-old. Sergio Ramos is a just under a year older, aged 32. Both are defenders on the downward curve of exemplary careers and cannot be expected to cover almost the whole of their own half, yet they were expected to do exactly that for much of the night in Kaliningrad.

Against a nimble, clever outfit like Morocco, such openness invites trouble. A complacent Spain were duly punished by Khalid Boutaib, who was offered acres of space after capitalising on Ramos and Andres Iniesta’s error to send the North Africans ahead. Russia, who now await Spain in the knockout phase, are perhaps not as dynamic as Morocco but the nations who expect to reach the latter stages are, if not more so.

The lack of pace in midfield - a pre-tournament concern - remains. The ease with which hard-working, energetic opponents can press and harry them should be a worry, too. Overall, despite Spain topping Group B, those who fall in their half of the knockout bracket will have only seen signs of encouragement on Monday night.

When Lopetegui was dismissed, what Spain would have wanted from this group stage was a sense of reassurance - that Hierro could steady the ship, or that the players could self-manage. Hierro, though, has only coached with a light touch. So far, the players have struggled to fill the void. Instead of the answers they hoped to find, Group B has just provided Spain with more questions.

The only thing known for certain after five points from three games in Group B is that for Rubiales’ gamble to be deemed successful, there must be improvements. If there are not, expect to see the RFEF president’s name in the news cycle once again.