Published
on December 2, 2022
Spain’s head coach, Luis Enrique has reacted to Japan’s controversial goal against his team during both sides’ World Cup tie on Thursday night.
Enrique also slammed his players for their performance against Japan during the World Cup tie, insisting that they went into a collapsed mode in the second half.
According to him, he is not happy with the result of the match against Japan and has ‘nothing to celebrate’ after his team scraped into the round of 16 stages of the World Cup.
Enrique watched as Spain suffered a 2-1 loss to Japan despite taking the lead in the first half.
“In football, there are neither good nor bad sides. In football, there are merits and I am not happy at all,” Enrique said at his post-match press conference.
“I wanted to be first and win. Japan has surpassed us. We had started well.
“At halftime, we had already said to be careful with Japan and look, as soon as we started, we went into collapse mode. I have nothing to celebrate. I am not happy at all.”
Japan’s second goal was highly contentious, with replays initially saying the ball had gone out of play before Kaoru Mitoma managed to cut back his cross for Ao Tanaka to score from close range.
A lengthy VAR check concluded the whole of the ball had not crossed the line.
“I have seen a photo that must be faked. It can’t be that this photo is real. It has to be manipulated,” Enrique added.
