“I can assure you. I wasn’t there, I can’t empathize with Luis Enrique, but he must have been thinking about the strategy to avoid Brazil in the quarter-finals,” said Sánchez, who played at Barcelona from 1985 to 1992 had played the royal.
There was a certain risk of being eliminated yourself, but the former striker is convinced: “They took that risk.”
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As group winners, the next opponent in the round of 16 would have been Croatia. In the round of the top eight, a duel with top favorite Brazil would have been possible. After the game, the Spanish national coach Enrique vehemently emphasized that second place was not the goal: “I’m not happy. We qualified, but I would have preferred to finish first in the group. A lot has changed in the tournament because of it – but I have nothing to celebrate.”
In fact, after Costa Rica had taken a 2-1 lead against Germany, the Spaniards were briefly on the brink of being eliminated from the preliminary round. This horror scenario was averted by the victory of the DFB-Elf. Japan advanced to the round of 16 as group winners, Germany was eliminated.
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