World Cup 2022: Germany is eliminated after Spain’s defeat – ex-real star believes in intentional bankruptcy

“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.”

Through the defeat, that too brought about by a controversial goal by the Japanesethe Spaniards advanced to the round of 16 as second in the group.

Morocco is now waiting there in the supposedly easier half of the tournament (Tuesday, 4:00 p.m. in the live ticker). In the quarterfinals you could meet Portugal, among others.

Enrique admits: “We thought about it”

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.”

Also before the game the coach had clarified: “We thought about it. But imagine, we want to be second, we reach the 90th minute and it’s 0-0 in the two games, and in the 95th minute, with 15 seconds to go, Japan and Costa Rica both. Then you gambled and you were out.” According to Sánchez, no other statements can be expected from coaches. “We coaches will never say, we will never say, ‘I let ourselves be defeated’,” said the Mexican.

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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