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Spain
1
–
1
Russia
Joe Callaghan
The clouds above this corner of Moscow were open and apathetically soothed some of the atmospheric pressure that had beset the city. 39 atmosphere throughout the afternoon
of psychological pressure however, he stayed just where he was – hung so heavily on those in red. For 120 minutes and more of football tournaments sometimes tortuous and tedious, the Spaniards were in the expectation of the 11 Spaniards in the green center of Luzhniki Stadium, covered with sweat.
A new layer of summer rain as Iago Aspas advanced at 19:46. Now, almost three hours after the whole affair began, all that pressure and expectation was only on her shoulders – do not let that be the end of it.
Aspas is 30 years old and has played only 13 times for his country. It is not on this kind of shoulders that this kind of contest, and with it a whole generation, should rest. But none of the leaders of this era of unprecedented glory had managed to get another day for Spain and so Aspas had won it.
While he was preparing to take the fifth kick of his country, he was stopped by referee Bjorn Kuipers. Sergio Ramos, his captain of the national team, had encroached on the median line and Aspas had to take a step back and rethink the whole situation in his head. With leaders like that, it's a marvel that Spain even managed to arrive at 19:46
. Igor Akinfeev, captain and leader of Russia, stepped forward and lifted his left leg to stop Aspas' poor penalty, where he had met her – right in the middle of the game.
This great sports house has quaked as rarely in one of its iterations. Russian players and coaches and the men and women behind the scenes sprinted to the end where Akinfeev had made his second – and decisive – stop of the shootout.
It was for the same purpose as earlier, much earlier, during the national anthems. The partisans had unfurled a huge banner that said, "You were born to make the fairy tale real." A Spanish support pocket stubbornly refused to deploy a corner that was trying to be rolled over their heads.
Their resistance would only prove fleeting. Russia should not be refused. Not that day. Not against a Spanish side that looked like a cheap impression of the one who had dominated the modern international game. This was not the tiki-taka
From the outset, Spain has been trying to bring Luzhniki's life to life. Instead, they strangled all the air that remained a stifling day of their own lungs. Call it death by 1000 pbades. Their only goal came off the calf of a Russian who had retired from international play in March
and so their World Cup ended as she had started – with tears. They had sank the cheeks of Julen Lopetegui on the opening day of this tournament when the new director of the national team was unveiled as Real Madrid's new boss at about the same time as the Russia. 19659006] At that time, Fernando Hierro was already three days into his new role as Spain 's leading figurehead. Finally, it will not last three weeks.
After a hectic race in the group stages, Hierro made big calls here. With the biggest of all, he dropped Andres Iniesta, the playmaker to watch on the bench in the knockout stages for the first time since 2006 – when another Spain campaign was a cropper in the Last 16 years. see a lot of competition as Russia pushed Spain for an extra half hour before finally pushing them on the edge. He was 1-1 at the moment the 35-year-old came in shortly after the hour of play, coming to get David Silva while Hierro could have been justified to call someone to earth while he was on his side.
From the beginning of the race, the 2010 champions had taken the lead and 38-year-old Sergei Ignashevich was too busy with Ramos on the surface to notice that Marco Asensio's free-kick had escaped him. Akinfeev.
Russia seemed ready to roll but instead Spain was rather going round. Where the generation of 2008-2012 has managed some nice pbadages that have been punished in an instant, all this has been superficial. Spend for pbading love.
Russia felt that they could be in the game and were when the Gerard Pique World Cup went on conceding a useless handball just before the break. The indefatigable totem Artem Dzyuba has hidden it.
There remained 79 of 120 minutes, but Spain could have been here all night and would not have crossed, Asensio and Isco and Silva and Koke and Sergio Busquets going from one side on the other but in the end nowhere. The competition was therefore decisive for the same purpose where the Russians had been invited to make a real fairy tale.
So resolute and badured in normal and overtime, they were exactly the same on the spot, Ignashevich and the fantastic Aleksandr Golovin among four Russians who pbaded David De Gea. Akinfeev saved Koke, then Aspas missed the last kick of the contest.
A fairy tale filled. And with him, a nightmare has ended.
SPAIN: From Gea 6; Nacho 5 (Carvajal 70 5), Spades 5, Ramos 6, Alba 6; Koke 5, Busquets 5; Silva 4 (Iniesta 676), Isco 5, Asensio 5 (Rodrigo 104); Costa 6 (Aspas 80 5).
RUSSIA: Akinfeev 8; Fernandes 6, Kutepov 6, Ignashevich 7, Kudriashov 7, Zhirkov 5 (Granat 46 6); Kuziaev 6 (Erokhin 98), Zobnin 5, Samedov 6 (Cheryshev 61 6), Golovin 7; Dzyuba 7 (Smolov 65 5)
Arbitrator: Bjorn Kuipers (Netherlands)
Attendance: 78,011
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