90min

Twitter reacts to Spain's World Cup elimination to Morocco on penalties

By Sean Walsh

Spain's tournament is over
Spain's tournament is over / Julian Finney/GettyImages
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Another one bites the dust.

After narrowly scraping through their group (only just about avoiding the same ill fate as Germany), Spain have been knocked out of the World Cup at the last 16 stage on penalties for a second successive tournament, this time at the hands of Morocco.

How did we get here? Weren't Spain the favourites to go through against their neighbours from northern Africa?

Well, it was the same old story with La Roja - lots of possession, not enough penetration.

Captain Sergio Busquets - who was one of three Spain players to miss in the penalty shootout - had a rather poor game walking through the mud of the midfield.

Even literal Golden Boy Gavi was coming in for criticism.

But credit where it's due to Morocco, who took Spain the whole way and went toe-to-toe with them. West Ham defender Nayef Aguerd came in for praise again.

Former Southampton star Sofiane Boufal, often criticised for his inconsistency, was having the game of his life.

Spain nearly stole a spot in the quarter-finals at the end of the 120 minutes through Pablo Sarabia, and he was first to miss during the shootout.

Carlos Soler and Busquets missed for Spain, allowing Madrid-born and raised Achraf Hakimi to step up and score the winning spot kick.

Scenes. Limbs.

With this win, Walid Regragui became the first African manager to lead a nation into the quarter-finals of the World Cup.

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