Luis Enrique said spain will not “gamble” by playing for second place in Thursday’s final World Cup group match against Japan hoping to avoid a potential quarter-final clash with the favorites Brazil,
Spain won their first match Costa Rica 7-0 before Sunday’s 1-1 draw Germany They finished top of Group E with four points, three points ahead of Japan and Costa Rica, leaving Germany at the bottom of the group with one point each.
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The group winners will face the runners-up in Group F — Morocco, Croatia either belgium – Round of 16 before the quarter-finals with the winners of Group G, likely to be Brazil, or the runner-up in Group H.
“It is a good question, because we have thought about it as well,” Luis Enrique told a news conference on Wednesday.
“But imagine we want to finish second, we get to the 90th minute and it’s 0-0 in two games, and with 15 seconds left in the 95th minute, Japan and Costa Rica both score. Played and you are out.
“Or imagine Germany are up 5-0, we’re looking for a draw, and Japan scores and we’re out. When you’re convinced you’ve got a very good team and you want to play seven games want to [to get to the final], It’s not about getting second place. We want to finish first. If we play Brazil in the quarterfinals, great, we’ll play Brazil. But we won’t count our chickens before they hatch.”
Spain’s 7–0 victory over Costa Rica – the country’s biggest ever win at the World Cup – forced them to hold talks about candidates to lift the World Cup in Qatar, before they were ousted by Germany. Draw with -1.
Five-time World Cup winners Brazil have scored the most points so far Serbia 2–0 in their Group G opener thanks to a second-half brace from Richardson and a late strike from Casemiro gave them a 1–0 win. Switzerland,
Luis Enrique said, “Brazil is a world power, a clear favorite at any World Cup, in any year.”
“Brazil will always be among the favourites, they have a lot of individual and collective quality. Other than that, there is nothing surprising. I look at the FIFA rankings and most of the favorites are in the top ten. France And Brazil both won comfortably, they are top teams.”
